ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the internal constitution of imaginaries by functionally differentiated social systems, such as law and politics, is impossible to externally integrate by the general system of national culture which would have the capacity to guarantee the unity of foundational values and moral principles in modern society. Culture, rather, refers to the temporal dimension of individual systems and can be functionally and sectorally differentiated into legal cultures, political cultures, economic cultures, scientific cultures etc. The polity's identity as the imagined unity of a nation does not lead to the ultimate cultural and societal inclusion and integration. It is actually constituted by the systems of positive law and politics by internalising the specific cultural function of memory as collective identification. The evolving post-national culture of human rights serves as an example of how particular cultures and their practices can be imagined as transnational communities of universal values beyond the imaginary of constituent nation.
