Editorial Profile

Aequitas Magazine is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal of Law and Legal Culture, grounded in the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability, and publication ethics, in line with internationally recognized best practices in scholarly communication.

The journal is published exclusively in digital format and, having neither applied for public subsidies nor received revenue from editorial activity, is exempt—pursuant to Article 3-bis(1) of Law No. 103/2012—from any registration requirement under Article 5 of Law No. 47/1948 (Italian Press Law). The Journal publishes eleven issues annually. Publication is suspended in August for the summer recess. To preserve correspondence between issue numbers and calendar months, Issue No. 8 is not published; accordingly, Issue No. 9 is published in September.

Aequitas Magazine is identified by ISSN 3035-0271 (portal) and ISSN 3035-4803 (monthly periodical).

The journal adopts the Diamond Open Access model: all content is freely accessible to readers, and the Journal does not charge APCs (Article Processing Charges) or any other publication fees to authors, thereby ensuring the broadest possible accessibility, interoperability, and dissemination of knowledge. The journal therefore guarantees open access to scholarly knowledge without any restrictions on use or economic, technical, or temporal barriers for either authors or readers.

Scholarly contributions submitted for publication undergo a rigorous and structured double-blind peer-review process, in accordance with the Journal’s Peer Review Policy and Ethics Code. Any content not subject to peer review is expressly identified as such.

Mission and Foundational Identity

The title Aequitas Magazine deliberately invokes the Roman-law concept of aequitas, understood as a corrective and integrative principle capable of tempering positive law where normative rigidity—or historical and social change—could otherwise yield outcomes that are formally valid yet substantively unjust.

The journal adopts as its scientific and identity-defining motto the renowned definition attributed to Celsus (2nd century A.D.), cited by Ulpian at the opening of the Digest:

Ius est ars boni et aequi.

This maxim expresses the epistemological orientation of the journal: law as a rational art of concrete justice, rather than a purely technical exercise or a mechanical application of rules.

The journal’s mission is to foster critical, rigorous, and interdisciplinary legal scholarship, combining doctrinal analysis with close attention to case law and to the ethical, social, cultural, and anthropological implications of legal phenomena.

Aequitas Magazine provides a qualified forum for scholarly inquiry grounded in a systemic and contextual reading of law, overcoming sectoral, merely descriptive, or reductionist approaches.
In a historical context marked by rapid and pervasive transformations—normative, technological, and social—the journal affirms that law and legal practice require continuous engagement with substantive justice, human dignity, equity, reasonableness, and fundamental rights.

Its methodological orientation is explicitly cross-cutting, multidisciplinary, and intersectoral, inspired by Edgar Morin’s principle of Complexity as a privileged interpretive key for contemporary socio-legal issues. Accordingly, the journal encourages structured dialogue between law and adjacent fields, including anthropology, bioethics, philosophy, history, geopolitics, and technology.

Publisher and Scientific Cooperation

The journal is published by Aequitas Magazine (Italian tax code 93089850635), an independent Cultural Association for Legal Studies and Research based in Italy, through which the journal constitutes a scientific and academic expression of the organization’s statutory aims.

The Publisher is identified within the Research Organization Registry (ROR) and the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI), in accordance with international best practices for persistent identification of research and scholarly-publishing organizations, ensuring uniqueness, interoperability, and metadata standardization.

Aequitas Magazine cooperates, as an editorial resource, with the “Hugo Gernsback” Research Laboratory of the Leonardo da Vinci University, Torrevecchia Teatina (CH), Italy.

Indexing, Discovery, and Catalogues

Aequitas Magazine is:

• Indexed in DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). 
• Listed and verified in the Diamond Discovery Hub (DDH), a European infrastructure dedicated to the discovery and visibility of Diamond Open Access scholarly journals.
• Listed in ROAD (Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources), sponsored by UNESCO.
• Identified in OCLC – WorldCat with unique identifier 10556399657.
• Included in major international discovery services and catalogues (e.g., EBSCO, Ulrich’s Web – Serials Solutions, BASE, among others), and held by leading academic libraries (including Harvard Library and MIT Libraries).
• Present and discoverable within the OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe) ecosystem, including through contributions deposited in Zenodo.
• Indexed in OpenAlex as a Source (scholarly source), with a dedicated bibliographic profile for the journal and indexing of its scholarly contributions with ID S7407062200.
• Catalogued in Mir@bel – Réseau Mir@bel (Francia).
• Catalogued in SUDOC – Système Universitaire de Documentation (ABES, Francia) with PPN 27970092X for ISSN 3035-0271 and PPN 284715360 for ISSN 3035-4803.
• Registered in CINECA with code E277033.
• Catalogued in the Italian National Library Service (SBN) with code RMG0316326, searchable via OPAC.
• Available among open access resources of the Central Legal Library of the Italian Ministry of Justice and within ICCU (Italian Central Institute for the Union Catalogue) under the Ministry of Culture, and listed in MLOL – Media Library OnLine.

Open Access Policy and Licensing

Aequitas Magazine is a Diamond Open Access journal: access to its content is free for readers, and publication is free of charge for authors, with no APCs or other editorial fees.

Aequitas Magazine endorses the principles of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) (14 February 2002), promoting full and free access to scholarly literature.

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0).
Sharing and adapting the content for any purpose, including commercial purposes, is permitted, provided that appropriate credit is given to the Author and to the original publication in Aequitas Magazine, in accordance with the terms of the license.

The journal’s publication and self-archiving policy is registered in Mir@bel (Repository Policy).

Open access enables broad, lawful reuse without fees or undue restrictions, including reading, copying (in whole or in part), linking to the full text, downloading PDFs, sharing via email or social media, scanning for indexing, text and data transmission to software, and any other legitimate purpose, in support of the dissemination of scientific knowledge and free access to research outputs.

No Publication Fees

The journal does not charge APCs (Article Processing Charges) and does not impose any submission or publication fees.
All publishing costs are fully covered by the Publisher.

Scientific Standing and Academic Use

Aequitas Magazine systematically adheres to criteria identifying the scientific character of research publications under Article 3-ter(2) of Law No. 1/2009 and the Italian University Council (CUN) Proposal of 24 October 2013.

Scholarly contributions published by the Journal are intended for the academic, scientific, and professional communities and may be considered for evaluation within their respective contexts, subject to the applicable criteria, requirements, and procedures.

Publication Ethics, Research Integrity and Audience

Aequitas Magazine operates in accordance with its Publication Ethics (PDF) and with its policies on research integrity and scholarly publishing, which apply, according to their respective roles, to Authors, Reviewers, and the Journal’s editorial and scientific bodies.

The Ethics Code addresses, inter alia, editorial independence, peer review, conflicts of interest, the use of generative artificial intelligence, author responsibilities, corrections and retractions, complaints and appeals, research and publication misconduct, and the protection of the integrity of the scholarly record.

The Journal also promotes diversity among Authors, institutional affiliations, and geographical backgrounds and monitors editorial endogamy in accordance with the criteria established by its Ethics Code.

Aequitas Magazine addresses a qualified audience of researchers, scholars, academics, and legal professionals, with the primary purpose of advancing scholarly research, as well as education and professional development.

Editorial Policy and Peer Review

The statutory academic ethos of Aequitas Magazine (Research and Legal Studies Cultural Association) is reflected in the journal’s editorial activity through an explicitly cross-cutting, multidisciplinary, and intersectoral methodology. The journal advances a systemic and contextual approach capable of accounting for the full range of values at stake, in a manner that is careful, fair, reasonable, and scientifically grounded.

The journal adopts as an elective methodology the analysis of the multifactorial nature of reality and human phenomena, in homage to Morin’s Complexity paradigm, intended as an interpretive framework suitable for capturing the dynamic interaction between normative, social, cultural, ethical, and technological dimensions of law.

The journal therefore promotes and values scholarly contributions that address intersections across disciplines, facilitating structured dialogue between law and fields such as anthropology, bioethics, philosophy, history, geopolitics, and technology, on the premise that contemporary legal phenomena require analytical tools that are neither sectoral nor reductionist.

Aequitas Magazine applies a selective and rigorous editorial policy aimed at optimizing publishable content according to recognized standards of scientific quality and transparency.

Scholarly contributions subject to peer review undergo a thorough evaluation process comprising plagiarism screening and double-blind peer review, designed to ensure impartiality, independence of judgment, and scientific reliability.

Editorial evaluation is based on criteria including originality, clarity, argumentative coherence, terminological accuracy, robustness of sources and bibliography, scientific relevance, depth of critical analysis, and methodological rigor.

Contributions primarily fall within the “Social” macro-area, with a primary focus on Area 12 – Legal Sciences, and may extend across multiple domains with interdisciplinary intersections in Area 14 – Political and Social Sciences, according to the journal’s thematic sections (Thematic Areas), including:

• Current Case Law: Contemporary case law, with particular attention to Italian Supreme Court Joint Chambers decisions;
• Current Legal Issues: Legal issues of significant social, cultural, and geopolitical relevance;
• Civil Law;
• Criminal Law;
• Law and Anthropology;
• Law and Bioethics;
• Law and History;
• Law and Technology.

This Editorial Policy forms an integral component of the journal’s scientific identity and ensures epistemological coherence, academic authority, and alignment with international standards for  peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

Archiving, Digital Preservation, and Persistent Identifiers

Aequitas Magazine implements a structured system of backup and long-term digital preservation.

Publications are deposited in Zenodo, an open access repository operated by CERN within the OpenAIRE programme, and are assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and an additional persistent identifier, ARK (Archival Resource Key), to ensure stability, interoperability, accessibility, citability, and long-term preservation.

The journal is also subject to permanent web archiving through the services of the digital library Internet Archive, including the Wayback Machine, by means of the creation and preservation of periodic snapshots of its main editorial pages and published contents. This web archiving system ensures the historical traceability of versions, the continuity of access, and the long-term verifiability of scholarly information, even in the event of updates, technological migrations, or possible discontinuation of the website.

Authors retain full rights to self-archive their works in institutional or disciplinary repositories, or in other repositories of their choice, in compliance with the Journal’s Editorial Policy and the applicable licensing conditions.

Editorial and Scientific Governance

The governance of Aequitas Magazine is structured according to principles of transparency, independence, and a clear distinction between editorial and scientific responsibilities.

Editor-in-Charge

The Editor-in-Charge oversees compliance with the legal and editorial obligations applicable to the periodical publication, within the functions assigned under applicable Italian law, coordinating with the Publisher and the Scientific Director within their respective areas of responsibility.

Scientific Director

The Scientific Director defines the Journal’s scientific orientation, coordinates the Scientific Committee and, within the scope of his responsibilities, safeguards scientific and editorial independence, methodological rigor, research integrity, and the scientific quality of published contributions.

Scientific Committee

The Scientific Committee contributes to the development and consolidation of the Journal’s scientific orientation and performs advisory and scientific-support functions, while respecting the independence of the evaluation process and the provisions of the Ethics Code.

The composition of the Journal’s editorial and scientific bodies is publicly available and periodically updated, indicating members’ qualifications and, where applicable, institutional affiliations and countries.

Scientific Director

• Luigi Zito

  Lawyer in Italian Supreme Court and Higher Courts. Qualified to teach (SSD) IUS/01, IUS/09, IUS/13, IUS/17 — IUL University of Florence, Italy.

Scientific Committee

• Eugenio Zito

  Professor of Cultural Anthropology — Department of Social Sciences — Federico II University of Naples, Italy.

• Vincenzo D’Antò

  Professor of Oral and Dental Diseases — Department of Neurosciences — Federico II University of Naples, Italy

• Alessia Amelio

  Engineer. Professor of Information Processing Systems — Department of Engineering and Geology — Gabriele D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy.

• Majid Bahari Ghazani

  Lawyer. Professor of Private Law — Azad University of Marand, Iran.

• Ricky Banke

  Lecturer of Criminal Law – Department of Law — Pelita Harapan University of Medan, Indonesia.

• Eleonora Colombo

  Lawyer in Italian Supreme Court and Higher Courts. PhD in History and Doctrine of Institutions — University of Insubria, Italy.

• Ciro Maria Ruocco

  Lawyer. PhD in Comparative Private Law — University of Salerno, Italy.

• Taha Eslami

  PhD Candidate in Criminal Law and Criminology — Azad University of Tabriz, Iran.

• Antonio Fusiello

  Lawyer in Italian Supreme Court and Higher Courts. Specialist in Administrative Law.

• Tammaro Diana

  Lawyer in Italian Supreme Court and Higher Courts.

• Gerardo Bianco

  Lawyer in Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Naples.

• Viola Valentina Graziano

  Lawyer; Specialist in Administrative Law.

• Vincenzo Caiazzo

  Lawyer; Specialist in Public Administration Organization, Management, and e-Government.