Law as a Social System

Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199546121
Published In: June 2008
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
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Presents the definitive statement of the widely misunderstood systems theory of law by Niklas Luhmann
Makes available a classic work of modern German legal philosophy to an English-speaking audience
Offers critical new insights into the nature of law in modern society and its relationship to other social systems, such as politics, religion and the economy
Provides a theoretical grounding for sociology in general, applying the general systems theory to one of the most important social systems

Modern systems theory provides a new method for the analysis of society through an examination of the structures of its communications. In this volume, Niklas Luhmann, the theory's leading exponent, explores its implications for our understanding of law.

Luhmann argues that current thinking about how law operates within a modern society is seriously deficient. He lays out the theoretical and methodological tools that, he argues, can advance our understanding of contemporary society and in particular of the identity, performance, and function of the legal system within that society. In systems theory, society is its communications: they are its empirical reality; the items that can be observed and studied. Systems theory identifies how communications operate within a physical world and how different sub-systems of communication operate alongside each other.

In this volume, Luhmann uses systems theory to address a question central to legal theory: what differentiates law from other social practices? However, unlike conventional legal theory this volume seeks to provide an answer in terms of a general social theory: a methodology that answers the question in a manner applicable not only to law, but also to all the other complex and highly differentiated systems within modern society, such as politics, the economy, religion, the media, and education. This sociological approach offers profound insights into the relationships between law and other social systems.

Readership: Academics and students of sociology, law, philosophy, and legal philosophy.

Contents:: Foreword; Introduction; 1. The Location of Legal Theory; 2. The Operative Closure of the Legal System; 3. The Function of Law; 4. Coding and Programming; 5. Justice: a Formula for Contingency; 6. The Evolution of Law; 7. The PositionoOf Courts in the Legal System; 8. Legal Arguments; 9. Politics and Law; 10. Structural Couplings; 11. The Self-description of the Legal System; 12. Society and its Law; Index

Niklas Luhmann, Prior to his death in 1998, Niklas Luhmann was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Bielefeld University, Translated by Klaus Ziegert, Associate Professor of Jurisprudence, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, Edited by Fatima Kastner, Associate Lecturer, University of Hamburg Institute of Social Sciences, and Richard Nobles, Reader in Law, London School of Economics and Political Science

Contributors:

Klaus A. Ziegert, Translator
Fatima Kastner, Richard Nobles, David Schiff, and Rosamund Ziegert, Editors