Reflexive and Autopoietic Law

The concept of “reflexive law” was elaborated during a paradigmatic change in social science, sociology of law, and sociolegal studies in the 1980s. It is closely associated with social systems theory, critical theory, and recent theories of modernization. It means that law is a self-regulatory system producing its own mode of communication about both internal operations and external demands of social regulation. The concept of reflexive law has initiated new discussions regarding the status and role of sociological and sociolegal knowledge and its impact on legal doctrine.

In social science, the concept of reflexivity has several different meanings. The idea of reflexivity of human action and social order was elaborated within the framework of ethnomethodology when Erving Goffman and Harold Garfinkel introduced their respective theories ...

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