Constitutional Court Decisions as a Network of Precedents? A Network Theory-Based Analysis of the Jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Hungary

Citation networks reveal the flow of knowledge among documents and the interaction between topics. Under undisturbed conditions eg., in case of scientific publications, the information flux results from free association and from searching for contextual references. In such systems, the branching of topics over time leads to a wide horizon of knowledge. As the widening progresses, it becomes harder and harder to ensure the consistency and to avoid contradictions. Here, we present a case study and a model for a citation network, between the legal decisions of the Constitutional Court of Hungary, where an external effect introduces a bottleneck in the network topology of information passing. We show that the effect of the bottleneck is only temporary, and after a transition, the knowledge flow revives. On the other hand, we show that referring to earlier knowledge becomes indirect after the bottleneck.