Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Politics and Law

Niklas Luhmann’s social theory stands in direct opposition to the dominant ’anthropocentric’ traditions of legal and political analysis. King and Thornhill now offer the first comprehensive, critical examination of Luhmann’s highly original theory of the operations of the legal and political systems. They describe how from the perspective of his ’sociological enlightenment’ Luhmann continually calls to account the certainties, the ambitions and rational foundations of The Enlightenment and the idealized versions of law and politics which they have produced.

MICHAEL KING is Professor of Law at Brunel University, UK. He has held appointments at Warwick University and the State University of New York and has worked as a research fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. Recently, he has written extensively on autopoietic theory and its implications for the understanding of law.

CHRIS THORNHILL is Professor of German Political Theory at King’s College, London. He is the author of several books on modern German legal and political thought.