This paper sheds light on the attitudes of political parties towards the jurisprudential elite, higher educational and academic reforms during the establishment of democracy, and reveals how the legal community reacted to the political changes combined with the challenges concerning academic reform and restructuring of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This topic is of interest because the jurisprudential elite, like other scientific elites, was affected by the change of regime and the

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... uring of the scientific community and whether there was a difference between the effect on the jurisprudential elite and other elites. This research uncovers the role played by the jurisprudential elite, a highly prestigious group retaining the oldest traditions in Hungarian scientific history, in scientific polemics following the 2nd World War and in the reform of academic institutions.