ABSTRACT
The concept of modernity is embedded in the social changes from the rule of tradition, religion and uncontested sovereigns to the political and legal forms of communicative differentiation, democracy and polycontextuality. The functions, communications and institutions of law and politics have been a vital part of and a vital medium for these changes. The ongoing differentiation of the legal and political function-systems with their communications, institutions and procedures have also been vital parts of and mediums and enablers of the more comprehensive societal processes of a more functionally and communicatively differentiated society. This chapter presents some of the relevant and acute challenges to law and legal regulation in an increasingly communicatively and socially differentiated and complex society. It shortly presents and discusses the socio-legal and philosophical theoretical contributions to a better understanding of the current function of law and of its challenges by the theories of Niklas Luhmann, Jürgen Habermas and Gunther Teubner.
