Law as a Social System / Edition 3

by Niklas Luhmann, Klaus Ziegert, Fatima Kastner, Richard Nobles

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199546121
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/15/2008
Series:	Oxford Socio-Legal Studies
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Prior to his death in 1998, Niklas Luhammn was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Bielefeld University. This work has been translated from the original German by Prof. Alex Ziegert, and edited by Fatima Kastner, Richard Nobles, David Schiff, and Rosamund Ziegert.

Table of Contents

PrefaceIntroduction, Richard Nobles and David Schiff1. The Location of Legal Theory2. The Operative Closure of the Legal System3. The Function of Law4. Coding and Programming5. Justice: a Formula for Contingency6. The Evolution of Law7. The Position of Courts in the Legal System8. Legal Argumentation9. Politics and Law10. Structural Couplings11. The Self-description of the Legal System12. Society and its LawIndex

Editorial Reviews

"That a major volume bringing together his [Luhmann's] ideas has been made available in English is both very welcome and potentially influential" -Cambridge Law Journal

"..an important analysis about the way in which law operates asa distinctive social system..the analysis of the book illuminates legal practice" -Cambridge Law Journal

"..it is a 'must read' for serious scholars.." -Cambridge Law Journal

From the Publisher