ABSTRACT
'Reflexivity' means that law, as an autonomous sub-system of society, is obliged to respect the autonomy of other sub-systems of society, including organisations and interactions. For jurists, this reads like a kind of legal-political programme along the lines of traditional liberal or neo-critical ideas of freedom. However, according to the theoretical principles referred to here, what is put forward is no more than the simple statement of a fact, of a logical fact so to speak. The refusal to make premature evaluations is compensated by advantages that should not be underestimated. It becomes clear that the plurality of self-referential systems leaves no alternative but self-referential law. 'Reflexive law' is not a concept through which social knowledge could increasingly and, as it were, uninhibitedly flow into law.
