In today’s politically charged climate, the fusion of disparate worldviews into coherent legislation poses an unprecedented challenge for democracies worldwide. Despite the vital role of laws in governing our daily lives, our understanding of how legislation is crafted and sustained remains limited. In this context, the ERC-funded DEMOLAW project will review legislative texts across diverse political systems, including the EU, UK and US. It aims to unravel the complexities of democratic lawmaking. Through cutting-edge computational methods, the project seeks to answer questions such as the underlying design principles of laws and the factors influencing their evolution over time. By providing novel insights into legislative design and dynamics, DEMOLAW will deepen our understanding of democratic decision-making processes.

• 20-23 May 2025: Constantin represented the DEMOLAW team at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops in Prague (CZ), presenting our first paper Balancing Versatility and Precision: A Framework for Capturing Legislative Design Choices in Democratic Systems in the Workshop "Text-as-Data Analysis in Political Science: Unlocking Political Insights with New Research Tools", organized by Michal Parizek and Steffen Eckhard.

• 1 April 2025: Stefanie Rueß joins the DEMOLAW project as a post-doctoral researcher!

• 18-19 March 2025: Steffen, Mike, and Constantin present the conceptual foundations and the methodological approach of the DEMOLAW project in a workshop organized by Prof. Christoph Knill and Prof. Yves Steinebach at LMU Munich.

• 27 February 2025: The DEMOLAW Team will present its first working paper, Balancing Versatility and Precision: A Framework for Capturing Legislative Design Choices in Democratic Systems, at the 15th Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association (EPSA) in Madrid, taking place from 26-28 June 2025.

• 1 February 2025: Dr. Mike Cowburn joins the DEMOLAW project as a post-doctoral researcher!

• 1 December 2024: Amelie Sieber joins the DEMOLAW project as student research assistant!

• 1 October 2024: The DEMOLAW project has officially started at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen! The team positions will now be advertised.