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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Law, Rights, and Freedoms

Law, Rights, and Freedoms is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 12k 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 complex intersections of freedom of speech, civil rights, privacy, democracy, discrimination, media, surveillance, and human rights. It delves into the challenges and debates surrounding these issues in various contexts, including legal, social, and political dimensions.

  • Freedom of Speech
  • Civil Rights
  • First Amendment
  • Privacy
  • Democracy
  • Discrimination
  • Media
  • Surveillance
  • Human Rights
  • Equality
Research works
12k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-34%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
79% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Law, Rights, and Freedoms

Which countries lead Law, Rights, and Freedoms research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (780 and 65 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 780 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 65 works
  3. 3 Canada 30 works
  4. 4 India 27 works
  5. 5 Australia 22 works
  6. 6 Indonesia 19 works
  7. 7 China 14 works
  8. 8 Germany 14 works
  9. 9 Latvia 13 works
  10. 10 Netherlands 7 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 States: 78.8%United Kingdom: 6.5%Canada: 3.0%India: 2.7%6 others listed: 8.9%79%largest
United States780 · 78.8%United Kingdom65 · 6.5%Canada30 · 3.0%India27 · 2.7%6 others listed89 · 8.9%

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

Which institutions lead Law, Rights, and Freedoms research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Michigan publishes the most Law, Rights, and Freedoms research, followed by Indiana University and College of Law.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of MichiganUnited States 31 works
  2. 2 Indiana UniversityUnited States 15 works
  3. 3 College of LawLatvia 13 works
  4. 4 Yale UniversityUnited States 13 works
  5. 5 Georgetown UniversityUnited States 11 works
  6. 6 Boston UniversityUnited States 10 works
  7. 7 University of FloridaUnited States 9 works
  8. 8 New York Law SchoolUnited States 8 works
  9. 9 University of VirginiaUnited States 8 works
  10. 10 Fordham UniversityUnited States 8 works

Who are the leading researchers in Law, Rights, and Freedoms?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Law, Rights, and Freedoms include Judith Butler and David Hume.

  1. 1 Judith Butler United States 116k citations
  2. 2 David Hume Australia 107k 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, Rights, and Freedoms?

The most cited paper in Law, Rights, and Freedoms is "Race, Reform, and Retrenchment: Transformation and Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law" (Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, 1988), with 1,347 citations. Next come "Privacy and Freedom" (1,195) and "Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization" (1,014).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Race, Reform, and Retrenchment: Transformation and Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law Kimberle Williams Crenshaw · Harvard Law Review May 1988 1,347
2 Privacy and Freedom Alan Furman Westin · CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) 1970 1,195
3 Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization Paul Ohm · SSRN Electronic Journal PreprintOpen access 13 Aug 2009 1,014
4 From Street‐Level to System‐Level Bureaucracies: How Information and Communication Technology is Transforming Administrative Discretion and Constitutional Control Mark Bovens, S. Zouridis · Public Administration Review 2002 942
5 The Federal Communications Commission R. H. Coase · The Journal of Law and Economics Nov 2013 783
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Law, Rights, and Freedoms research done?

The largest centres of Law, Rights, and Freedoms research in 2022-now are New York (United States), Washington D.C. (United States), Ann Arbor (United States) and Chicago (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Ann Arbor.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 New YorkUnited States 46 works
  2. 2 Washington D.C.United States 39 works
  3. 3 Ann ArborUnited States 30 works
  4. 4 ChicagoUnited States 21 works
  5. 5 BostonUnited States 21 works
  6. 6 BloomingtonUnited States 14 works
  7. 7 LondonUnited Kingdom 14 works
  8. 8 New HavenUnited States 13 works
  9. 9 AtlantaUnited States 13 works
  10. 10 RigaLatvia 13 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Ann ArborUS · 29.9 works17×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Law, Rights, and Freedoms than the world average.

See Law, Rights, and Freedoms on the map

Where is the best place to study Law, Rights, and Freedoms?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Michigan, Yale University and Georgetown University 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%10%20%mean 9.125%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of MichiganYale UniversityGeorgetown UniversityIndiana University
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
1University of MichiganUnited States 82.015.2%21.3×31 +30.9%
2Yale UniversityUnited States 62.012.4%12.3×13 -56.1%
3Georgetown UniversityUnited States 39.29.0%25.5×10 -66.4%
4Indiana UniversityUnited States 38.07.2%16.4×15 -44.6%
5College of LawLatvia 34.56.0%280.5×13 -47.8%
6New York Law SchoolUnited States 31.58.8%394.1×8 -56.9%
7University of FloridaUnited States 25.211.1%9.0×9 -43.9%
8Boston UniversityUnited States 15.93.3%21.1×10 -41.6%

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, Rights, and Freedoms, country by country

Is Law, Rights, and Freedoms research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 34% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2012.

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, Rights, and Freedoms as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0046% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%Law, Rights, and Freedoms0.0047% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Law, Rights, and Freedoms 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, Rights, and Freedoms11.0% 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.

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