Instructions for authors

The editorial team of our journal invites submissions in the form of studies, articles, commentaries, and book reviews. Original research contributions (i.e., studies and articles) may be written in English, French, or Spanish. Commentaries and book reviews may also be published in Romanian. Contributions need not be limited to the analysis of positive law, but may also involve any scientific approach, including doctrinal research, law in context, or law and economics. Although the editorial board is based in Romania, our team encourages contributions concerning any legal system, as well as comparative and transdisciplinary research.

Publication is conditional on respecting the following author guidelines, the publication ethics policies, as well as securing a positive result in the peer review process.

Editors reserve the right to alter submissions to uphold the house style of the journal. Prior to peer review, editors shall examine the grammar and orthography (including syntax and punctuation) of every submission with a view to encourage clarity, accuracy and coherence, while eliminating tautology, ambiguity and circumlocution.

§1. Dimension

  • Studies are theoretical analyses which are thoroughly footed in relevant legal literature and case law, reflective of the current level of knowledge in the field, which make an original scientific contribution. As a rule, they should be above 5,000 words, while not exceeding 10,000 words (both figures include footnotes). They are subject to peer review and must be written either in English, French, or Spanish. English abstracts and keywords are required in all cases.
  • Articles are theoretical and/or practical analyses, founded on legal literature or case law, reflecting the current knowledge level and aiming to make an original contribution. As a rule, they should be above 3,000 words, while not exceeding 6,000 words (both figures include footnotes). They are subject to peer review and must be written either in English, French, or Spanish. English abstracts and keywords are required in all cases.
  • Commentaries can be either case notes (annotated judgments, case summaries or case analyses) or policy briefs. No submission should exceed 5,000 words (apart from case summaries, for which an upper limit of 3,000 words is expected). They are not subject to peer review and may also be published in Romanian.
  • Book reviews are usually commissioned by the editorial team. Still, our team also welcomes unsolicited contributions not exceeding 3,000 words. They are not subject to peer review and may also be published in Romanian.

Exceptions shall be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, whenever the nature of the research or other reasonable circumstances may require such derogation.

§2. Stylistic conventions

Title, author(s), and abstract

The main title of the paper should appear bolded and centred at the very beginning of the first page.

To ensure the integrity of the peer-review process, manuscripts submitted for review must be fully anonymised. Authors must not include their name(s), institutional affiliation(s), e-mail address(es), ORCID identifier(s), acknowledgements, funding information, or any other information that could reveal their identity within the manuscript file.

Author metadata shall be provided exclusively through the journal's submission platform. During submission, authors are required to provide their full name, institutional affiliation, ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), and a valid e-mail address (preferably an institutional e-mail address).

Authors should also ensure that self-citations are drafted in a manner that does not reveal their identity and that document properties and metadata are cleared prior to submission.

Studies and articles should also contain an abstract (max. 250 words) and keywords (between 5 to 7) in English, regardless of the language of the article (which may be English, French, or Spanish). Commentaries and book reviews are not subject to this condition and shall be published in either English, French, Spanish, or Romanian, without abstract or keywords.

Text

All original research submissions (studies and articles) may be written in English, French, or Spanish. Authors are encouraged to ensure linguistic accuracy, ideally by having their paper reviewed by a native speaker or professional editor. Quotations in languages other than the main language of the article should be translated, with the original provided in a footnote where relevant. Latin words and expressions should be italicised, except if they have been taken into common usage (e.g., i.e., etc.).

The main body should be indented (1 cm), and justified (aligned from the left to the right margin). Capitalisation ought to be used sparingly: for example, in the proper names of persons, places or institutions, as well as in acronyms and abbreviations. Common nouns should be lower case even. Legal traditions should be capitalised (e.g., Common Law, Civil Law), yet branches (e.g., civil law) or sources of law (e.g., common law) should be lower case.

Italics may be used for highlighting certain fragments. Single spaces ought to be used after (but never before) most punctuation marks (full stop, colon, semicolon, question or exclamation marks), except for the use of quotation marks, parentheses, or brackets (which should use single space before the first element and after the last), as well as dashes (which require single space both before and after the punctuation mark).

If the quotation already includes quotation marks, these shall be rendered in French style («example»). Quotations longer than three lines ought to be presented as fully indented paragraphs, separated from the main text by a single line both before and after, and without quotation marks (unless they are quotations within quotations). Indentation should be larger than the value used for the first line in main paragraphs (2 cm, rather than 1 cm), and used for every line (as opposed to no indentation for the main text, apart from the first line).

Headings

The editors encourage authors to divide the paper into sections and subsections, but caution against using more than three degrees of headings. When used, headings should be bolded. For example:

1. First level

1.1. Second level

(a) Third level

The paper may be further structured by dividing the main text into numbered paragraphs with bolded, marginal text (e.g., 1. Marginal text. Main text). Often, numbered paragraphs are comprised of two or more blocks of text (ordinary paragraphs).

§3. References

With respect to references, our journal adheres to the style of the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA 5th edn, 2026), available for download here. All English language contributions should apply the OSCOLA citation style. Submissions in French or Spanish may alternatively follow the national citation style most commonly used in their legal tradition, provided consistency is maintained throughout the text.

In addition to footnotes formatted according to OSCOLA or French/Spanish national citation styles, all submissions should include a numbered bibliography at the end of the paper, listing all sources cited. The bibliography should be organized alphabetically by author surname and include full publication details. All references in the bibliography should include DOI codes when available, to facilitate accurate citation and discoverability. Note that all articles published in Ars æqui are assigned Crossref DOIs, which provide a permanent and citable link to the content.

References in the bibliography must be transliterated or translated into the Roman alphabet when necessary, to ensure consistency and accessibility for international readers.