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Law and Political Science

Law and Political Science is a research topic within Law. Science Explorer counts 17k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the evolution of legal systems, jurisprudence, and governance in European countries, focusing on topics such as party competition, legal methodology, privacy in the digital age, migration law, constitutional courts, regulatory agencies, human rights protection, European law dynamics, and criminal justice. It reflects a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the changing landscape of legal studies and its intersection with societal and technological developments.

  • Party Competition
  • Legal Methodology
  • Privacy
  • Migration Law
  • Digital Governance
  • Constitutional Courts
  • Regulatory Agencies
  • Human Rights
  • European Law
  • Criminal Justice
Research works
17k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-14%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Germany
71% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Law and Political Science

Which countries lead Law and Political Science research?

By volume, Germany and Austria publish the most (1.7k and 317 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Germany 1.7k works
  2. 2 Austria 317 works
  3. 3 United States 101 works
  4. 4 Switzerland 98 works
  5. 5 Poland 53 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 34 works
  7. 7 France 33 works
  8. 8 Türkiye 27 works
  9. 9 Russia 27 works
  10. 10 Netherlands 25 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.

Germany: 71.0%Austria: 12.9%United States: 4.1%Switzerland: 4.0%6 others listed: 8.1%71%largest
Germany1,748 · 71.0%Austria317 · 12.9%United States101 · 4.1%Switzerland98 · 4.0%6 others listed198 · 8.1%

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

Which institutions lead Law and Political Science research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Vienna publishes the most Law and Political Science research, followed by Bergmann und Partner Rechtsanwälte and Max Planck Society.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of ViennaAustria 52 works
  2. 2 Bergmann und Partner RechtsanwälteGermany 50 works
  3. 3 Max Planck SocietyGermany 43 works
  4. 4 University of MünsterGermany 42 works
  5. 5 Heidelberg UniversityGermany 41 works
  6. 6 Bielefeld UniversityGermany 39 works
  7. 7 Leibniz AssociationGermany 39 works
  8. 8 University of GrazAustria 37 works
  9. 9 Austrian Foundry Research InstituteAustria 36 works
  10. 10 Vienna University of Economics and BusinessAustria 32 works

Who are the leading researchers in Law and Political Science?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Law and Political Science include Wolfgang K. Huber, Michel Foucault and Herbert A. Simon.

  1. 1 Wolfgang K. Huber Germany 239k citations
  2. 2 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  3. 3 Herbert A. Simon United States 179k 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 Law and Political Science?

The most cited paper in Law and Political Science is "Legitimation durch Verfahren?" (Erhard Blankenburg, 1995), with 922 citations. Next come "Die Handlungsfähigkeit des Staates am Ende des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts" (412) and "Theorie der Juristischen Argumentation" (334).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Legitimation durch Verfahren? Erhard Blankenburg · Springer-Lehrbuch Book chapter 1995 922
2 Die Handlungsfähigkeit des Staates am Ende des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts Fritz W. Scharpf · VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften eBooks Book chapter 1992 412
3 Theorie der Juristischen Argumentation Édgar Bodenheimer, Robert Alexy · The American Journal of Comparative Law 1985 334
4 European Integration in the Euro Crisis: The Limits of Postfunctionalism Frank Schimmelfennig · Journal of European Integration 12 Feb 2014 302
5 Theories of Coalition Formation Anatol Rapoport Book chapter 1989 295
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Law and Political Science research done?

The largest centres of Law and Political Science research in 2022-now are Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Munich (Germany) and Hamburg (Germany). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Hamm, Leoben and Wiesbaden.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BerlinGermany 158 works
  2. 2 ViennaAustria 154 works
  3. 3 MunichGermany 101 works
  4. 4 HamburgGermany 80 works
  5. 5 Frankfurt am MainGermany 68 works
  6. 6 CologneGermany 64 works
  7. 7 HeidelbergGermany 51 works
  8. 8 HammGermany 50 works
  9. 9 MünsterGermany 49 works
  10. 10 GrazAustria 42 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. HammDE · 50.4 works424×
  2. LeobenAT · 36.3 works132×
  3. WiesbadenDE · 30.1 works89×
  4. TrierDE · 21.6 works76×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Law and Political Science than the world average.

See Law and Political Science on the map

Where is the best place to study Law and Political Science?

Among universities, judged by research, Bielefeld University, Heidelberg University and Leibniz University Hannover score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 12.75%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Leibniz University H…Bielefeld UniversityHeidelberg UniversityUniversity of Vienna
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.

Citation 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.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Bielefeld UniversityGermany 74.310.5%73.7×39 +23.6%
2Heidelberg UniversityGermany 70.87.0%23.1×40 +15.1%
3Leibniz University HannoverGermany 70.329.9%29.9×20 -26.6%
4University of ViennaAustria 69.86.5%44.9×52 +63.7%
5Vienna University of Economics and BusinessAustria 69.011.6%176.0×32 +263.5%
6Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany 67.716.8%32.1×27 -19.8%
7University of KonstanzGermany 67.09.5%57.9×18 +55.0%
8University of GöttingenGermany 66.711.8%24.7×20 +39.7%
9University of MünsterGermany 65.612.0%42.5×42 -3.8%
10University of BremenGermany 64.811.9%30.6×17 +30.2%

Universities only. The score blends citation 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 Law and Political Science, country by country

Is Law and Political Science research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 14% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021.

still counting19801990200020102020
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 Law and Political Science as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0099% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Law and Political Science0.0089% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Law and Political Science 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.

still counting5%10%15%Law and Political Science9.2% in 2025200020102020

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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