About the Journal

SASI is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the Faculty of Law, Universitas Pattimura, Indonesia. The journal is dedicated to advancing scholarly research on Customary Law and the diverse customary legal traditions, institutions, norms, and normative systems that operate across societies and jurisdictions worldwide.

SASI has a global geographical scope. The journal welcomes research on Customary Law from any country, region, jurisdiction, or legal tradition. Research may examine a particular customary legal system, compare customary legal traditions across different societies, or address broader theoretical and conceptual questions concerning the nature, recognition, development, application, and transformation of Customary Law.

Customary Law is recognized by SASI as a dynamic and evolving form of law that continues to shape social relations, governance, justice, dispute resolution, community life, land and natural resource management, cultural practices, and other dimensions of society. The journal examines Customary Law not merely as a historical or cultural phenomenon, but as a living legal order whose recognition, development, transformation, and interaction with other legal and normative systems remain important subjects of contemporary legal scholarship.

The journal provides a specialized scholarly forum for research examining the interaction between Customary Law and state law, religious law, international law, human rights frameworks, and other normative orders. It welcomes scholarship that investigates how customary legal systems are recognized, applied, challenged, adapted, transformed, and integrated within changing legal, social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental contexts.

SASI welcomes doctrinal, empirical, comparative, socio-legal, anthropological, historical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary research. The journal particularly values original scholarship that offers substantive theoretical contributions, rigorous empirical findings, sound legal analysis, meaningful comparative insights where appropriate, critical examination of legal developments, or interdisciplinary perspectives that advance knowledge and understanding of Customary Law.

The journal's scholarly interests encompass, but are not limited to, Customary Legal Systems, Customary Norms, Customary Institutions, Customary Governance, Customary Justice, Customary Dispute Resolution, Living Law, Legal Pluralism, Indigenous Legal Systems, Indigenous Peoples' Rights, Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge, Customary Land and Resource Rights, Environmental Governance, and the interaction between Customary Law and state, religious, and international legal orders.

SASI welcomes contributions from scholars, researchers, legal practitioners, judges, policymakers, and other professionals worldwide whose work makes a substantive contribution to the study of Customary Law. The journal seeks to bring diverse legal traditions, jurisdictions, methodological approaches, and scholarly perspectives into meaningful academic dialogue and to contribute to the broader international body of knowledge on Customary Law.

Through rigorous peer review and open-access publication, SASI seeks to promote accessible, credible, and impactful scholarship that contributes to legal theory, judicial practice, legislative development, law reform, public policy, governance, justice, and the recognition and development of customary legal systems.

Why Publish in SASI?

SASI provides a specialized scholarly forum for researchers and practitioners working on Customary Law and related legal and normative systems. Through open-access publication and established scholarly publishing practices, the journal seeks to make high-quality research accessible to readers across countries, jurisdictions, and academic communities.

  • International Scholarly Scope — SASI welcomes research on Customary Law from different countries, regions, jurisdictions, and legal traditions.
  • Open Access — Published articles are freely accessible to readers worldwide.
  • DOI for Published Articles — Published articles are assigned persistent Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to support reliable citation and long-term identification.
  • Scholarly Discoverability — Articles are published with structured scholarly metadata and made available through relevant academic discovery and indexing infrastructure.
  • Rigorous Peer Review — Manuscripts are evaluated through the journal's established peer-review process to support scholarly quality and integrity.
  • Methodological Diversity — SASI welcomes doctrinal, empirical, comparative, socio-legal, anthropological, historical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary approaches.
  • International Academic Dialogue — The journal brings together scholarship from diverse legal traditions and jurisdictions to advance international discussion on Customary Law.

Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SASI recognizes the relevance of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to contemporary legal scholarship. Consistent with the journal's focus on Customary Law, indigenous and customary legal systems, legal pluralism, justice, governance, community life, and the interaction between customary and other legal orders, research published in SASI may contribute to one or more of the SDGs, particularly those related to reducing inequalities, inclusive and sustainable communities, access to justice and effective institutions, and global partnerships.

  • SDG 10 — Reduced Inequalities: relevant to research addressing inclusion, equality, discrimination, recognition of customary and indigenous communities, and the protection of rights across different social and legal contexts.
  • SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities and Communities: relevant to research concerning customary communities, cultural and natural heritage, community governance, traditional institutions, and sustainable relationships between communities and their environments.
  • SDG 16 — Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions: particularly relevant to research on the rule of law, access to justice, customary justice systems, dispute resolution, governance, legal recognition, and inclusive and accountable institutions.
  • SDG 17 — Partnerships for the Goals: relevant to comparative, cross-jurisdictional, interdisciplinary, and international research collaborations that strengthen knowledge exchange and scholarly partnerships.

These SDGs reflect areas of relevance arising from the journal's scholarly scope. Their inclusion does not imply that every article published by SASI must explicitly address a Sustainable Development Goal.

For detailed information about the journal's editorial direction, editorial team, peer-review process, author guidelines, and publication charges, please consult the following:

  • Focus & Scope — the journal's subject areas, geographical scope, and editorial direction.
  • Editorial Team — information about the Editor-in-Chief, editors, and members of the editorial team.
  • Peer Review Process — information about manuscript evaluation and the journal's peer-review procedures.
  • Author Guidelines — manuscript preparation, submission requirements, and publication procedures.
  • Article Processing Charges (APC) — information about publication charges applicable to authors.

SASI is committed to academic excellence, editorial integrity, ethical publishing, rigorous peer review, and open access. Through the publication of high-quality research, the journal seeks to provide a trusted scholarly forum for the continuing study and development of Customary Law across legal traditions and jurisdictions worldwide.