Luhmann on Law and Politics: Critical Appraisals and Applications

Description

Perhaps more than any other social theorist in recent history, Niklas Luhmann's work has aroused extreme, and often antagonistic, responses. It has generated controversies about its political implications, its resolute anti-humanism and its ambitious critique of more established definitions of society, social theory and sociology. Now, however, a steadily growing number of scholars working in many different disciplines have begun to use aspects of Luhmann's sociology as an important methodological stimulus and as a theoretical framework for reorientating their studies. This collection of essays includes critical and reconstructive contributions by a number of distinguished social theorists, political theorists, legal scholars and empirical sociologists. Together, they provide evidence of Luhmann's extensive and diverse relevance to the issues facing contemporary society, and, at the same time, they enhance our understanding of the challenges posed by his theoretical paradigm to more traditional conceptions of social theory.

Michael King is Emeritus Professor at the School of Law, University or Reading. Chris Thornhill is Professor of Law at the University of Manchester.

It is as much the way that an author's works are received as the works themselves which determines their importance. This collection edited by Michael King and Chris Thornhill makes worthwhile reading. This volume consists of highly diverse contributions concerning Niklas Luhmann's creative work. Certain of them are careful studies on this or that aspect of Luhmann's work, while others apply Luhmann's conceptual constructions in different settings. This book provides an opportunity to question the meaning and the range of Luhmann's output... Luhmann represents, ... a speculative revolution, and it is for this reason that he merits our attention. Luhmann is one of the most important German sociologists of the second part of the 20th Century. -- Hugues Rabault * Droit et Societe, No 65/2007 *