Legal: A Self-creating System: A Self-creating System

Author: Gunther Teubner
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: This book elaborates on the history of the theory of legal autopoiesis, an important academic school and methodology in law that has developed in Germany and then in Europe over the past decade or so. This legal theory views the autonomy of law as the self-reproduction of a communicative network, and considers its relationship with society as interference with other autonomous communicative networks. A Series of Legal Theory in the World Legal Classics. Currently, the debate in legal theory is dominated by a futile and pointless division. On the one hand, analytical theories focus on the reality of law but risk losing the relationship between law and society; on the other hand, sociological methods analyze various social interactions of law but fail to develop conceptual tools to fairly address the autonomy of law. Autopoiesis theory offers law an opportunity to avoid the false choice between an autonomous rule system or a socially constrained decision-making process. This legal theory views the autonomy of law as the self-reproduction of a communicative network and considers its relationship with society as interference with other autonomous communicative networks. Based on the ideas of Humberto Maturana, Heinz von Foerster, and Niklas Luhmann, Gunther Teubner applies the concepts of self-organization and autopoiesis to develop a concept that views law as a social system of hypercycle closure. This book will serve as a milestone in legal theory and will become a starting point for the development of legal sociology.