Against a Systemic Legal History
This paper questions the resort to systems theory as the foundation of an evolutionary legal history. In particular, the theoretical legacy of Niklas Luhmann upon which Marie Theres Fögen proposes to draw seems to have limited application outside a context in which advanced system differentiation is...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory
2002-01-01
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| Series: | Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History |
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| Online Access: | http://data.rg.mpg.de/rechtsgeschichte/rg01_debatte_roberts.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818623960476024832 |
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| author | Simon Roberts |
| author_facet | Simon Roberts |
| author_sort | Simon Roberts |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper questions the resort to systems theory as the foundation of an evolutionary legal history. In particular, the theoretical legacy of Niklas Luhmann upon which Marie Theres Fögen proposes to draw seems to have limited application outside a context in which advanced system differentiation is present. Although (like Marx, Durkheim and Weber before him) Luhmann drew in a broad evolutionary trajectory, he was concerned principally with “functionally differentiated society”. Earlier phases – covering precisely those formations that historians will presumably focus upon – are very hazily sketched in and relatively poorly theorised. In general, we should not too readily acknowledge “the exhaustion of the paradigm of modernity” (Santos, 1995) or rush to proclaim the obsolescence of multi-dimensional approaches such as those of Bourdieu (1977) and Giddens (1984). Any legal history that marginalises both human actors and the conditional environment has a considerable task in making up the ensuing deficit. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T18:49:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c7777c8867e3449891f0659b40f3a1e8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1619-4993 2195-9617 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T18:49:22Z |
| publishDate | 2002-01-01 |
| publisher | Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History |
| spelling | doaj.art-c7777c8867e3449891f0659b40f3a1e82022-12-21T22:20:44ZdeuMax Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal TheoryRechtsgeschichte - Legal History1619-49932195-96172002-01-01Rg 01212510.12946/rg01/021-0252Against a Systemic Legal HistorySimon RobertsThis paper questions the resort to systems theory as the foundation of an evolutionary legal history. In particular, the theoretical legacy of Niklas Luhmann upon which Marie Theres Fögen proposes to draw seems to have limited application outside a context in which advanced system differentiation is present. Although (like Marx, Durkheim and Weber before him) Luhmann drew in a broad evolutionary trajectory, he was concerned principally with “functionally differentiated society”. Earlier phases – covering precisely those formations that historians will presumably focus upon – are very hazily sketched in and relatively poorly theorised. In general, we should not too readily acknowledge “the exhaustion of the paradigm of modernity” (Santos, 1995) or rush to proclaim the obsolescence of multi-dimensional approaches such as those of Bourdieu (1977) and Giddens (1984). Any legal history that marginalises both human actors and the conditional environment has a considerable task in making up the ensuing deficit.http://data.rg.mpg.de/rechtsgeschichte/rg01_debatte_roberts.pdfMPIeR |
| spellingShingle | Simon Roberts Against a Systemic Legal History Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History MPIeR |
| title | Against a Systemic Legal History |
| title_full | Against a Systemic Legal History |
| title_fullStr | Against a Systemic Legal History |
| title_full_unstemmed | Against a Systemic Legal History |
| title_short | Against a Systemic Legal History |
| title_sort | against a systemic legal history |
| topic | MPIeR |
| url | http://data.rg.mpg.de/rechtsgeschichte/rg01_debatte_roberts.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT simonroberts againstasystemiclegalhistory |