ABSTRACT
Niklas Luhmann is a troublemaker: he writes a great deal, and on very many subjects, and he is still expanding his theory. As a jurist, he started with studies on law and administration, but soon he reached the level of general sociology and published a wealth of books and articles on power, love, religion, morality, education, art, the economy, and the like. Luhmann claims to have established a general systems theory, for which law and sociology of law are only a single field of application. Luhmann developed this new approach on a general level. However, the consequences for this new way of looking at the legal system are not yet sufficiently elaborated. So much for a brief summary of Luhmann's general systems theory, mostly in his own words. Luhmann applies the cognitive/normative distinction not only to expectations but also to the legal system.
