ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the perception of legitimacy is essential to the legal system's identity, and that identity is vital to the continuation of law's ability to claim to be the site for the resolution of legal disputes. It considers the extent to which complexity theory requires law to incorporate, rather than exclude, the concept of vulnerability. The chapter also argues that if vulnerability is not incorporated this poses risks to law's perceived legitimacy and, thus, law's identity. To show this, it reflects on how the concept of vulnerability is not only relevant to individual humans, or to humanity in general, but – drawing on DeLanda's concept of the social assemblage as a means to permit a more nuanced understanding of the idea of the 'system' – social systems and processes too. The chapter unpacks the concepts of identity, difference and vulnerability vis-a-vis complexity theory and legal complexity specifically.
