On September 17, 2025, the dissertation of our former researcher Dr. Jacob Ulrich was published, titled »Intra-Party Competitive Democracy: A Law-and-Economics Analysis of Party Organization in Light of the Requirement of Intra-Party Democracy under Article 21(1), Sentence 3 of the German Basic Law.«

The work examines, using law-and-economics methods and an original empirical study, whether party law and party statutes comply with constitutional requirements and ensure a free and equal competition within parties. The dissertation is available from Mohr Siebeck in print as well as open access. We warmly congratulate Dr. Jacob Ulrich on this publication.

In the JuristenZeitung (Morlok, JZ 2026, Issue 1, pp. 44 f.), Prof. Dr. Martin Morlok described the work as an “inspiring study.” He emphasizes that Ulrich rightly strengthens the concept of competition as a central element of democracy and demonstrates the utility of economic analysis tools for political party law. Furthermore, he praises the work’s broad scholarly foundation. The full review can be found here [Paywall].

[Translated with DeepL]