Topic · Law

Judicial and Constitutional Studies

Judicial and Constitutional Studies is a research topic within Law. Science Explorer counts 24k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the intersection of judicial politics, legal consciousness, and the dynamics of constitutional review. It delves into topics such as judicial independence, the role of public opinion in shaping court decisions, legal mobilization, and the functioning of international courts. Additionally, it examines issues related to the separation of powers, the rule of law, and the impact of partisan labels on democratic accountability.

Judicial Politics
Legal Consciousness
Constitutional Review
Judicial Independence
Supreme Court
Public Opinion
Legal Mobilization
Separation of Powers
International Courts
Rule of Law

Research works: 24k
In the world top 10%: 2.4k
Top-10% rate: 10.1%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25: -12%
Largest producer: United States

Judicial and Constitutional Studies

Which countries lead Judicial and Constitutional Studies research?

By volume, the United States and Brazil publish the most (1k and 348 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

1 United States 1k works
2 Brazil 348 works
3 United Kingdom 303 works
4 India 223 works
5 Germany 154 works
6 Australia 139 works
7 Canada 115 works
8 Italy 113 works
9 China 99 works
10 Russia 92 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States1,035 · 39.5%Brazil348 · 13.3%United Kingdom303 · 11.6%India223 · 8.5%6 others listed713 · 27.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Judicial and Constitutional Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Oxford publishes the most Judicial and Constitutional Studies research, followed by University of Chicago and Yale University.

By volume, 2022-now

1 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 43 works
2 University of ChicagoUnited States 24 works
3 Yale UniversityUnited States 23 works
4 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 22 works
5 University of VirginiaUnited States 20 works
6 University of TorontoCanada 19 works
7 Max Planck SocietyGermany 18 works
8 London School of Economics and Political ScienceUnited Kingdom 18 works
9 UNSW SydneyAustralia 17 works
10 University of MichiganUnited States 16 works

Who are the leading researchers in Judicial and Constitutional Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Judicial and Constitutional Studies include Andrei Shleifer, Andrew Gelman and Amartya Kumar Sen.

1 Andrei Shleifer United States 234k citations
2 Andrew Gelman United States 132k citations
3 Amartya Kumar Sen United States 117k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Judicial and Constitutional Studies?

The most cited paper in Judicial and Constitutional Studies is "Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda" (Gretchen Helmke, Steven Levitsky, 2004), with 3,164 citations. Next come "Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds" (2,423) and "Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control" (2,277).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda Gretchen Helmke, Steven Levitsky · Perspectives on Politics Open access	Dec 2004	3,164
2	Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds Wendy Nelson Espeland, Michael Sauder · American Journal of Sociology Open access	Jul 2007	2,423
3	Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control Mathew D. McCubbins, ROGER G. NOLL, Barry R. Weingast · The Journal of Law Economics and Organization	1987	2,277
4	A Theory of the Calculus of Voting William H. Riker, Peter C. Ordeshook · American Political Science Review	Mar 1968	1,939
5	Corruption and Political Development: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Joseph S. Nye · American Political Science Review	Jun 1967	1,726

All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Judicial and Constitutional Studies research done?

The largest centres of Judicial and Constitutional Studies research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Washington D.C. (United States) and São Paulo (Brazil).

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 LondonUnited Kingdom 74 works
2 New YorkUnited States 64 works
3 Washington D.C.United States 57 works
4 São PauloBrazil 53 works
5 MoscowRussia 44 works
6 OxfordUnited Kingdom 44 works
7 ChicagoUnited States 42 works
8 Rio de JaneiroBrazil 41 works
9 MelbourneAustralia 37 works
10 SydneyAustralia 35 works

See Judicial and Constitutional Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Judicial and Constitutional Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, Leiden University, University of Houston and University of Oxford score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged

40%

Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share

10%

Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale

30%

Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%

10%

Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad

10%

Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.

#	University	Score	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	Leiden UniversityNetherlands	71.3	25.4%	7.3×	14	+88.3%
2	University of HoustonUnited States	69.0	23.0%	11.6×	14	+85.8%
3	University of OxfordUnited Kingdom	68.5	10.5%	8.7×	43	-6.0%
4	European University InstituteItaly	67.9	27.8%	45.7×	12	+4.2%
5	Masaryk UniversityCzechia	67.4	27.9%	13.8×	14	+11.7%
6	University of ChicagoUnited States	58.1	9.5%	8.1×	24	+7.5%
7	London School of Economics and Political ScienceUnited Kingdom	57.9	16.2%	21.3×	18	-41.8%
8	Central European UniversityAustria	55.8	20.3%	51.0×	9	+18.0%
9	University of LisbonPortugal	53.6	23.2%	3.5×	10	+27.2%
10	University of WarsawPoland	52.6	21.0%	6.9×	12	+1.8%
11	Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael	52.4	22.1%	7.4×	14	-7.8%
12	University of BolognaItaly	50.4	26.5%	3.4×	10	+4.6%
13	Erasmus University RotterdamNetherlands	50.2	30.0%	4.9×	9	-15.1%
14	University of VirginiaUnited States	49.6	17.8%	8.9×	20	-26.6%
15	Yale UniversityUnited States	48.3	11.0%	6.1×	24	-21.4%
16	University of OsloNorway	47.8	18.7%	4.2×	10	-39.4%
17	University of Wisconsin–MadisonUnited States	47.8	26.4%	2.5×	8	+9.4%
18	University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom	47.5	14.8%	4.3×	13	+5.5%
19	University of Hong KongChina	45.7	15.5%	4.2×	14	-48.4%
20	University of MichiganUnited States	45.3	12.6%	3.0×	16	+8.5%
21	Eötvös Loránd UniversityHungary	44.5	14.8%	7.6×	8	+69.7%
22	The University of Texas at AustinUnited States	42.6	13.7%	4.8×	14	-12.3%
23	Australian National UniversityAustralia	42.6	27.6%	4.9×	9	-49.7%
24	University of TorontoCanada	41.5	12.4%	2.6×	19	-50.2%
25	Charles UniversityCzechia	41.0	11.3%	5.6×	9	+43.6%
26	Stanford UniversityUnited States	40.9	12.5%	2.7×	14	-8.0%
27	George Mason UniversityUnited States	40.8	16.0%	10.3×	12	-14.1%
28	University of GeorgiaUnited States	40.7	21.0%	6.2×	10	-17.5%
29	KU LeuvenBelgium	40.7	17.1%	2.6×	9	-32.9%
30	Trinity College DublinIreland	40.6	3.9%	7.4×	11	+108.3%
31	University of Massachusetts AmherstUnited States	40.0	12.4%	6.5×	8	+16.3%
32	Jagiellonian UniversityPoland	39.9	8.8%	6.4×	15	+25.4%
33	University of Notre DameUnited States	39.8	20.5%	9.1×	10	-25.1%
34	UNSW SydneyAustralia	39.2	6.4%	5.2×	17	-35.9%
35	Georgetown UniversityUnited States	38.2	18.5%	7.5×	12	-56.0%
36	University of British ColumbiaCanada	38.0	14.5%	2.4×	10	+5.1%
37	O. P. Jindal Global UniversityIndia	37.4	11.4%	31.9×	10	-1.3%
38	University of GlasgowUnited Kingdom	37.3	15.2%	4.2×	10	-19.6%
39	Fundação Getulio VargasBrazil	37.3	11.5%	23.0×	9	-29.8%
40	New York UniversityUnited States	37.1	14.0%	2.9×	12	-25.9%
41	College of LawLatvia	36.5	4.9%	80.1×	14	-32.4%
42	Deakin UniversityAustralia	34.4	9.1%	6.0×	9	+57.4%
43	Illinois Institute of TechnologyUnited States	34.0	8.6%	22.1×	8	-28.5%
44	Universidade de São PauloBrazil	32.3	4.3%	3.1×	22	-12.8%
45	Monash UniversityAustralia	31.1	5.1%	4.6×	16	-29.2%
46	Massachusetts School of LawUnited States	29.8	0.7%	534.1×	10	+175.6%
47	University of CopenhagenDenmark	29.8	7.9%	2.7×	9	-56.9%
48	Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyUnited States	28.9	8.9%	3.1×	8	+52.3%
49	University College LondonUnited Kingdom	28.2	6.6%	2.0×	12	-40.4%
50	University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom	25.8	5.5%	3.0×	13	-52.2%
51	National University of SingaporeSingapore	23.0	4.7%	2.4×	10	-49.4%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Judicial and Constitutional Studies, country by country

Is Judicial and Constitutional Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 12% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2019.

grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Judicial and Constitutional Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

Fractional works of Judicial and Constitutional Studies over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

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Which countries lead Judicial and Constitutional Studies research?

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Judicial and Constitutional Studies research?

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Judicial and Constitutional Studies?

What are the most cited papers in Judicial and Constitutional Studies?

Where is Judicial and Constitutional Studies research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where is the best place to study Judicial and Constitutional Studies?

Is Judicial and Constitutional Studies research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

Related research

Discussion