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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. 10.6% 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%
1.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.6%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
-20%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Law, Rights, and Freedoms research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (670 and 59 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 670 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 59 works
  3. 3 Canada 25 works
  4. 4 India 23 works
  5. 5 Australia 20 works
  6. 6 Indonesia 18 works
  7. 7 Germany 13 works
  8. 8 Latvia 11 works
  9. 9 China 11 works
  10. 10 Israel 6 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: 78.4%United Kingdom: 6.8%Canada: 2.9%India: 2.6%6 others listed: 9.2%78%largest
United States670 · 78.4%United Kingdom59 · 6.8%Canada25 · 2.9%India23 · 2.6%6 others listed79 · 9.2%

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

Which institutions lead Law, Rights, and Freedoms research?

By volume in 2022–2025, University of Michigan publishes the most Law, Rights, and Freedoms research, followed by Yale University and College of Law.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 University of MichiganUnited States 29 works
  2. 2 Yale UniversityUnited States 12 works
  3. 3 College of LawLatvia 11 works
  4. 4 Indiana UniversityUnited States 11 works
  5. 5 Boston UniversityUnited States 8 works
  6. 6 University of FloridaUnited States 8 works
  7. 7 Georgetown UniversityUnited States 8 works
  8. 8 New York Law SchoolUnited States 7 works
  9. 9 University of VirginiaUnited States 7 works
  10. 10 University of IowaUnited States 7 works

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

The most-cited researchers publishing on Law, Rights, and Freedoms include Cass R. Sunstein and David Hume.

  1. 1 Cass R. Sunstein United States 2.5k citations
  2. 2 David Hume Australia 1.9k citations

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

Where is Law, Rights, and Freedoms research done?

The largest centres of Law, Rights, and Freedoms research in 2022–2025 are New York (United States), Washington D.C. (United States), Ann Arbor (United States) and Boston (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, 2022–2025

  1. 1 New York United States 40 works
  2. 2 Washington D.C. United States 32 works
  3. 3 Ann Arbor United States 29 works
  4. 4 Boston United States 18 works
  5. 5 Chicago United States 17 works
  6. 6 Bloomington United States 13 works
  7. 7 New Haven United States 13 works
  8. 8 Atlanta United States 12 works
  9. 9 London United Kingdom 12 works
  10. 10 Riga Latvia 11 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Ann ArborUS · 28.9 works19×
← 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, Boston University and Yale University 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.

0%2.5%5%mean 2.98%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →University of Michigan: 29, 4.8%Boston University: 8, 5.9%Yale University: 12, 2.7%College of Law: 11, 0.0%Indiana University: 11, 1.5%Boston UniversityUniversity of MichiganYale UniversityCollege of Law
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 University of MichiganUnited States 49.84.8%23.2×29 -5.2%
2 Boston UniversityUnited States 47.25.9%19.0×8 +76.8%
3 Yale UniversityUnited States 22.72.7%13.5×12 -30.5%
4 College of LawLatvia 17.30.0%251.9×11 -19.0%
5 Indiana UniversityUnited States 12.51.5%88.9×11 -37.6%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Law, Rights, and Freedoms research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 20% lower than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2012. The fastest-growing topics are Law, Rights, and Freedoms.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

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

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.