سخن سردبیر 113

Editorial 
Spring arrived and the new solar year begun while our beloved Iran has been subject to brutal war attacks and the sacred sanctuary of Shahid Beheshti University, our second home, has been violated. But our research and scientific activities continued. Now Vol. 29 (113) of Legal Research is available for legal society and the interested researchers. In this issue the whole selected articles has been published after undergoing different phases of formal and substantive review, literary and technical editing and final page layout. In this regard, we appreciate all esteemed authors, who collaborated with us to complete the preparation process despite the existing hard situation, which led to the new issue publication.  
During this period, Legal Research achieved second quartile (Q2) in the 2024 evaluation conducted by Islamic World Science & Technology Monitoring and Citation Institute (ISC) while moving up three steps. Moreover the impact factor of the journal has been experiencing a progressive trend. Journal's team tries to improve its performance and upgrade qualitative indicators, while providing appropriate legal content for distinguished readers, to achieve first quartile (Q1). In this path, we need the respected authors' cooperation to comply with formal guide and preserve scientific and research components in articles and modestly ask the reviewers to share their valuable and scientific comments with us to move forward in countries' legal literature development.
The first article of this issue No. 113 is dedicated to "Animals as Potential Parties to Rights: An Examination of the Legal Systems of Iran and France from an Eco Centric Perspective". This article studies animal law through two main and fundamental approaches including utilitarian and rights-based which investigates the historical evolution of animal law. This research is based on the hypothesis that guaranteeing the right to a balanced and healthy environment requires moving toward a comprehensive perspective which views humans alongside the environment. Therefore interested researchers may access to novel analysis in this field regarding authors' point of view. Moreover this issue of Legal Research encompasses articles in various areas including International Law, Law & Morality, Arbitration Law, Islamic Law, Women Law, Family Law, Competition Law, Energy Law, Criminal Law & Criminology, Contracts Law and Public Law containing articles from esteemed and prominent authors aiming to provide readers with appropriate content in different legal fields.  
We respectfully request the authors to fully study the journal's guidelines before submitting their articles to get informed of the journal's formal and substantive requirements. This leads to time reduction in evaluation and review process and prevents the prolongation of initial formal review before substantive review. We desire that the review process be completed in a reasonable and standard time however the initial formal and structural deficiencies of some articles hinder the achievement of this goal. 
We strive to publish the journal's issues on time and consistently, despite all difficulties to play our constructive and efficient role and develop the existing legal literature with our respected audience as part of our social responsibility. Please share any suggestions and criticisms with us via journal's email address, law.res.mag@sbu.ac.ir.         
Mansour Amini
Editor in Chief of Legal Research