Presentation

A journal at the service of science and legal practice

The Journal of Civil Law, which at this moment, readers have before them on their screens, aims to achieve, despite its modest resources, the objective of conciliating scientific rigour with practical interest. Although it is true that there is no real science without speculative reflection and that «science must not succumb to the bare necessities of practice», it is also true that science should not be a stronghold or a product for scientists; speculation is not exclusive to doctors and science should be placed at the service of practice. If, as Kurt Lewin used to say, «there is nothing more practical than a good theory», the best theory will be one which serves practice or to put it more elegantly, one for life.

This journal produced by (and for) Law theoreticians and practitioners arises as the initiative of a small number of teachers and professionals, under the auspices of the web page notariosyregistradores.com, one of the virtual sites with the greatest vis atractiva in the whole legal panorama of Spain. The said page was created in 2001 by a group of registrars and notaries who deemed it at the time a useful opportunity to offer a regular space for contributions and dissemination of detailed and thorough legal reports. Several years later, a growing readership/audience confirms the value and relevance of the above mentioned Project, enriched with the passing of year with new sections and contributors.

Far removed from confrontations or mutual disregards between theoreticians and practitioners, between supporters of one legal discipline or another or between professionals from one or another legal activity, and with the same spirit that fostered the birth of the web notariosyregistradores.com, it is our aim today to facilitate dissemination in the most open way possible of thought provoking research work encouraging the analysis of Private Law in its present state (at all times) and striving to find the best application for it.

Moreover, it is also a matter of preserving the spirit of a «classical» journal, while taking advantage of new technologies. The attraction of the «old» ways, rigourous regular frequency, the safety of a pre-established editorial policy and the selection of articles through a transparent process –characteristics of a traditional journal– cannot be replaced and should not become lost in the dematerialization of electronic publication. There is, on the other hand, the invaluable advantage of liberating publishing from the servitude of the printing press, that is to say, graphical editing deadlines, constraints of circulation and number of pages.

The Journal of Civil Law first came out in February 2014 and, since then it has offered immediate and unrestricted access to the totality of its contents, once each three-monthly issue has seen the light. The journal is classified under letter «B» in the Integrated Classification for Scientific Journals (CIRC) (ICSJ). It is also registered in OAI, included in the ISOC database, in the Latindex Catalogue, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), as well as in Miar (ICDS 7,3, in 2021), Dulcinea, Sherpa/Romeo, JournalTOCs, Google Scholar, Ulrichweb, Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek, Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB), e-revista, and in the portal REDIB, run by the CSIC.

At the end of 2015 it was included in Emerging Sources Citation Index, which is Web of Science database, and in september 2016 it was included in ERIHPlus. It is valued in Carhus Plus + 2018 in letter A.

In November 2018, the journal has been evaluated for inclusion in SCOPUS 2019 and in March 2019 it was effectively indexed.

 In Dialnet Métricas it occupies, from 2019 to today (2023), the first position of the group "Civil Law and Commercial Law".