Manuscript Type

Asy-Syari'ah accepts the following manuscript types. All submissions must be original, must not be under consideration elsewhere, and are subject to the journal’s peer review process. Word limits include the abstract, main text, and footnotes, but exclude the reference list.

1. Original Research Article

A full-length article reporting original research in Islamic law, family law, customary law, sociology of law, or related fields. This includes normative (doctrinal) legal research, empirical or socio-legal research, and comparative legal studies. The article should state a clear research problem, a methodology, a rigorous analysis of primary and secondary legal materials or field data, and a conclusion that answers the research questions. 

2. Review Article

A critical, systematic, or scoping review of existing scholarship on a defined topic. A review article must explain its search and selection procedure, synthesize the literature analytically rather than descriptively, and identify research gaps and directions for future inquiry. 

3. Conceptual or Theoretical Article

An article that develops, tests, or critiques a legal concept, theory, or doctrinal framework (for example, the application of maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah or legal pluralism to contemporary issues) without relying primarily on new empirical data. The argument must be grounded in authoritative sources and engage with relevant literature. 

4. Case Analysis (Court Decision Commentary)

A critical analysis of one or more court decisions (for example, from religious courts, general courts, or the Constitutional Court) or of a significant legal development. The analysis should describe the case, examine the legal reasoning, and assess its implications for doctrine and practice. 

Authors should select the manuscript type at submission and follow the journal’s author guidelines, the authorship criteria, and the publication ethics policy. The editorial board may recommend that a manuscript be reclassified under a more appropriate type.