ABSTRACT
The use of knowledge in the field of law, as expressed in the relationship between scientific expertise and legal decision, shall be analyzed on the basis of a sociological theory of law, by giving an external description of the legal system as a self-describing system. In the external description of a sociological theory of law, legal practice is the organization of judicial and extra-judicial sectors of the legal system, but also of constitutive interaction, such as conclusion of contracts, within the legal system. Self-observation and self-description of the legal system are of the utmost importance. The aim of self-description is the "representation of the unity of the system within the system." It is the reflection of unity within the system that reflects itself. In the self-description of the legal system, the dogmatics of administrative law recently emphasized a fundamental trend in development characterizing the way in which law handles knowledge, lack of knowledge, and uncertain knowledge.
