ABSTRACT
The paradoxes of self-reference seem to be the principal obstacle to the development of an authentically social epistemology. While traditional epistemology situates cognition exclusively in the consciousness of the subject, Jurgen Habermas recognizes that cognition is basically a communicative process. A social epistemology on a constructivist basis can explain why law appears to be an "essentially self-validating discourse" which one should expect to be "largely impervious to serious challenge from other knowledge fields". The conflictual character of legal procedures—litigation as well as legislation and scholarly disputes—forces legal discourse to examine any piece of new knowledge produced outside the legal world only if it is "relevant" to the law. If the normative context of law requires cognitive statements on specific matters, then it is true that the law may start its operations with common sense understanding and with reference to science.
