RIEKKINEN, PEKKA; LLM

                         UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO (CANADA), 1993

                         LAW (0398); SOCIOLOGY, SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT (0700)
 

                         The thesis discusses about the concept of legal autopoiesis based on a more general hypothesis of
                         self-referential and self-restructuring social systems. In the context of legal theory the autopoiesis of law
                         as a legal theoretical concept is claimed to represent an attempt to redefine the basic assumption of the
                         positivistic tradition of legal theory. Namely, in the frames of the legal autopoiesis the legal system is
                         moving the symbol of validity in a circular manner and thus can become autonomous in relation to other
                         social systems, such as the political and the economical system. This claim combines the understanding
                         of the modern legal system to the evolutionary history of the social systems. The drift from the earlier
                         stages of social evolution to be highly differentiated modern society is argued to be the animating force
                         behind the increasing autonomy of the legal system and the legal doctrine.

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