Introduction

Niklas Luhmann wrote a number of works which have decisively shaped the recent development of legal science as a theoretical discipline. Luhmann's conception of law's autonomy, accordingly, is based, not in a normative argument about law's necessary integrity, but rather in a sociological theory of law as a fully differentiated system. The autonomy of law, thus, is the autonomy of a highly constructed, internally reproducible system of legal communications. The emphasis on the importance of positive law for modern society is a core element both in Luhmann's conception of the legal system and in his account of social formation more widely, and, in addition to its importance for the legal system, he saw the positivization of law as playing a vital role in the processes of functional differentiation that underlie modern society as a whole. The chapter also presents an overview of this book.