Niklas Luhmann: Law, Justice, Society

Niklas Luhmann: Law, Justice, Society
Author: Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2009-09-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1135211280

This is the first book to consider German sociologist Niklas Luhmann's social theory in a critical legal context. His theory is introduced here both in terms of society at large and the legal system specifically, and the book reveals the aporetic structure of autopoiesis, aligning it with postmodern approaches to law. Readers will find it operates both as an introduction to the relevance of Luhmann's social theory for law, as well as a critical response to autopoiesis.

Niklas Luhmann: Law, Justice, Society

Niklas Luhmann: Law, Justice, Society
Author: Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2009-09-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1135211272

Niklas Luhmann: Law, Justice, Society presents the work of sociologist Niklas Luhmann in a radical new light. Luhmann’s theory is here introduced both in terms of society at large and the legal system specifically, and for the first time, Luhmann’s texts are systematically read together with theoretical insights from post-structuralism, deconstruction, phenomenology, radical ethics, feminism and post-ecologism. In his far-reaching book, Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos distances Luhmann’s theory from its misrepresentations as conservative, rigorously positivist and disconnected from empirical reality, and firmly locates it in a sphere of post-ideological jurisprudence. The book operates both as a detailed explanation of the theory’s concepts and as the locus of a critique which brings forth Luhmann’s radical credentials. The focal points are Luhmann’s concept of society and the law’s paradoxical connection to justice. However, these concepts are also transgressed in order to show how the law deals with the illusion of its identity, and more broadly how the theory itself deals with its limitations. This is illustrated by examples drawn from human rights, constitutional theory and ecological thinking. On the whole, Niklas Luhmann: Law, Justice, Society serves both as an introductory text and as a critical response to Luhmann’s theory, and is recommended reading for students and researchers in sociology, law, social sciences, politics and whoever is interested in seeing the influential work of Niklas Luhmann from a critical new perspective.

Law as a Social System

Law as a Social System
Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: Oxford Socio-Legal Studies
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2004
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780198262381

However, unlike conventional legal theory, this volume seeks to provide an answer in terms of a general social theory: a methodology that answers this 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 truly sociological approach offers profound insights into the relationships between law and all of these other social systems.

Niklas Luhmann's Theory of Politics and Law

Niklas Luhmann's Theory of Politics and Law
Author: M. King
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2003-09-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230503586

Niklas Luhmann's social theory stands in direct opposition to the dominant 'anthropocentric' traditions of legal and political analysis. King and Thornhill now offer the first comprehensive, critical examination of Luhmann's highly original theory of the operations of the legal and political systems. They describe how from the perspective of his 'sociological enlightenment' Luhmann continually calls to account the certainties, the ambitions and rational foundations of The Enlightenment and the idealized versions of law and politics which they have produced.

Sovereignty in Post-Sovereign Society

Sovereignty in Post-Sovereign Society
Author: Jiří Přibáň
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1317052099

Sovereignty marks the boundary between politics and law. Highlighting the legal context of politics and the political context of law, it thus contributes to the internal dynamics of both political and legal systems. This book comprehends the persistence of sovereignty as a political and juridical concept in the post-sovereign social condition. The tension and paradoxical relationship between the semantics and structures of sovereignty and post-sovereignty are addressed by using the conceptual framework of the autopoietic social systems theory. Using a number of contemporary European examples, developments and paradoxes, the author examines topics of immense interest and importance relating to the concept of sovereignty in a globalising world. The study argues that the modern question of sovereignty permanently oscillating between de iure authority and de facto power cannot be discarded by theories of supranational and transnational globalized law and politics. Criticising quasi-theological conceptualizations of political sovereignty and its juridical form, the study reformulates the concept of sovereignty and its persistence as part of the self-referential communication of the systems of positive law and politics. The book will be of considerable interest to academics and researchers in political, legal and social theory and philosophy.

Observing Law through Systems Theory

Observing Law through Systems Theory
Author: Richard Nobles
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2012-12-07
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1782250123

This book uses Niklas Luhmann's systems theory to explore how the legal system operates as one of modern society's subsystems. The authors demonstrate how this theory alters our understanding of some of the most important and controversial issues within law: the nature of judicial communication and legal argument; the claim that it can be right to disobey law; the character of legal pluralism and globalisation; time and its construction within law; the significance of the rule of law and human rights and the role of appeals to, and within, law. Systems theory enables the authors to demonstrate how the legal system observes its own operations through its own communications, and how this contrasts with the manner in which law is observed by other systems such as the media and politics. In this context the authors explore the constraints imposed by systems, in particular the legal system, upon the individuals who participate in them.

Religion and Legal Pluralism

Religion and Legal Pluralism
Author: Russell Sandberg
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1317068025

In recent years, there have been a number of concerns about the recognition of religious laws and the existence of religious courts and tribunals. There has also been the growing literature on legal pluralism which seeks to understand how more than one legal system can and should exist within one social space. However, whilst a number of important theoretical works concerning legal pluralism in the context of cultural rights have been published, little has been published specifically on religion. Religion and Legal Pluralism explores the extent to which religious laws are already recognised by the state and the extent to which religious legal systems, such as Sharia law, should be accommodated.

Niklas Luhmann

Niklas Luhmann
Author: Christian Borch
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2011-03-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134008295

Niklas Luhmann offers an accessible introduction to one of the most important sociologists of our time. It presents the key concepts within Luhmann’s multifaceted theory of modern society, and compares them with the work of other key social theorists such as Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, and Zygmunt Bauman. The book pays particular attention to introducing and discussing Luhmann’s original sociological systems theory. It presents a thorough investigation into the different phases of his oeuvre, through which both the shifting emphases as well as the continuities in his thinking are shown. The primary focus of this text is Luhmann’s theory of modern society as being differentiated into a plethora of ‘function systems’ – such as politics, law, and economy – which operate according to their own distinct logics and which cannot interfere with one another. For Luhmann, this functional differentiation works as a bulwark against totalitarian rule, and as such is a key foundation of modern democracy. Furthermore, the book critically examines the implications of this functional differentiation for inclusion and exclusion dynamics, as well as for the understanding of power and politics. This is a key text for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of areas including contemporary social theory, political sociology, and sociology.

Luhmann Observed

Luhmann Observed
Author: Anders La Cour
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2013-06-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1137015292

This book, for the first time, brings Niklas Luhmann's work into dialogue with other theoretical positions, including Lacan, Derrida, Deleuze, gender studies, bioethics, translation, ANT, eco-theories and complexity theory.