The Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society

Virtus: The USC Law Journal is the annual publication of the College of Law under the School of Law and Governance, managed by its faculty and students. Virtus is dedicated to the scholarly examination of the law, with particular focus on the following fields: Political Law, Constitutionalism, and the Rule of Law; Civil Law, including private and commercial law; Public International Law; and Legal Theory and Jurisprudence.

Guide for Authors:

The Virtus, The USC Law Journal is the annual publication managed by the faculty and students at the College of Law of the School of Law and Governance of the University of San Carlos, Cebu City. It is committed to the scholarly examination of the law, specifically in the following fields or areas:

• Issues in Political Law, Constitutionalism, and the Rule of Law
• Civil Law, and other private and commercial laws
• Public International Law
• Legal Theory and Jurisprudence

Guidelines

1. Virtus accepts submissions on a rolling basis. Submissions received before 31 July of every year will be considered for publication on its annual publication schedule on the last quarter of every year. Special issues will be considered by the editorial board from time to time.

2. Prospective Authors should consider the journal’s thrusts and the chosen theme, if any, as indicated in the Call for Papers on a given volume of Virtus. Initial choice of manuscripts will be based on these considerations.

3. Contributors are expected to follow the general principles of academic integrity, thus it is expected that:

• the manuscript submitted to Virtus was not submitted or is not being considered in any other journal/s;
• permission to use copyrighted materials is obtained by the author;
• all cited sources are acknowledged or documented in the article; and,
• any use of assistive and generative AI in the manuscript preparation must be declared and described

4. Submissions in Virtus are generally classified into three: 5. All submissions to Virtus must be made through the USC PH Manuscript Management System. Authors should submit the following:

• Manuscript of article, essay, or book review with the name redacted
• Cover Letter containing at least the following:
• i. a list of four (4) reviewers with their affiliation and contact information (i.e., email address),
• ii. a description and declaration of any use of assistive and generative AI
• iii. a description of contributions of all authors ensuring accountability and intellectual contents for the work. Such may be in the form of: (a) conceptualization of the study or research design, (b) supervision of data gathering, (c) data acquisition, (d) data analyses, (e) manuscript writing, (f) acquisition of a study or research grant, and (g) review and editing of the final manuscript prior to submission.
• iv. declaration of conflict of interest

6. American English must be used in all submissions. Citations, footnoting, and other styling and formatting conventions must comply with The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (21st Ed.). Limit article headings to three levels at the most, however, additional levels can be used if it helps with the article’s organization

7. Format: Arial pt. 12, 1.5 spacing, 1” margin on all sides, footnotes must be single-spaced, font size pt. 10.

8. Graphics and tables are allowed, but only for purposes of ease of reading and when the submission calls for such use. Each graphic and table should be accompanied with a descriptive title and numerically identified sequentially, if multiple graphics and tables are used.

9. Images may also be included. However, the author should ensure that images included are original, or when not original, permissions are secured by the author or is available for public use. Each image should also be accompanied by a short descriptive title.

10. Virtus adopts a double-blind review process. The Editorial Board commits to promptly informing authors