Legal Aspects of Antitrust Law: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the global scholarly landscape on the legal aspects of antitrust law by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to understand the evolution, intellectual structure and contemporary research directions within this field. Although antitrust law has long been central to market regulation and economic governance, the rapid expansion of digital markets, emerging enforcement challenges and increasing cross-border legal complexities have created a need for systematic mapping of academic contributions to identify dominant themes, research gaps and influential jurisdictions. To address this problem, the present study utilised a multi-stage methodology integrating several digital research tools. Data were retrieved using Scopus advanced searching, producing a final dataset of 885 documents after applying predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Statistical patterns and graphical trends were generated through the Scopus Analyzer, enabling examination of publication growth, leading countries, institutions, sources and citation performance. OpenRefine was employed to clean, standardise and harmonise the dataset, particularly for resolving inconsistencies in author names, keywords and country affiliations. Subsequently, VOSviewer software was used to construct visualisations through co-authorship, co-occurrence and citation-network mapping to uncover thematic clusters and collaboration structures. The results reveal significant growth in antitrust-related legal scholarship between 2005 and 2025, with the United States and several European jurisdictions dominating output and influence. Keyword networks identify four major thematic clusters: core legal doctrines of competition law, anti-competitive conduct and market power, digital-platform regulation and jurisdiction-specific enforcement frameworks. Overall, the findings highlight a dynamic and increasingly diversified research landscape, underscoring the evolving interplay between law, economics and digital regulation. This study contributes a structured evidence base that supports future research directions and helps scholars, policymakers, and practitioners understand where antitrust law scholarship is advancing and where further exploration is needed.