ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the production of social symbols is internally processed by functionally differentiated social systems, such as law and politics, and culture does not ultimately integrate modern society into a unity of foundational values and moral principles. It discusses Maurice Halbwachs's classic concept of collective memory as a social construct unlimited by past traditions and shaped by the present society and its normative expectations, beliefs, interests and concerns. Constitutional polity as the internal concept constructed by coupling between the systems of politics and law and its identity as imagined unity draw on the general idea of collective existence brought to its modern life from 'historical sleep'. Collective memories are internal constructs of social systems, such as law and politics, and therefore necessarily differ because each system constitutes its specific internal memory as culture. This is why lawyers and legal scholars speak of different legal cultures.
