NIKLAS LUHMANN: LAW, JUSTICE, SOCIETY by ANDREAS PHILIPPOPOULOS‐MIHALOPOULOS
| Author | CHRIS THORNHILL |
| Published date | 01 June 2010 |
| Date | 01 June 2010 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2010.00510.x |
NIKLAS LUHMANN: LAW, JUSTICE, SOCIETY by ANDREAS
PHILIPPOPOULOS-MIHALOPOULOS
(Abingdon: Routledge, 2009, x + 237 pp., £70.00)
Until just a few years ago authors writing books in English about Luhmann
were in a fortunate position. There were few, if any, rivals for their work, and
they could place themselves within a sparsely populated intellectual
landscape, in which Luhmann was widely viewed with ignorance, scepticism,
or ± more normally ± some fusion of both. This is not quite the case any more.
The pile of English-language works on Luhmann is growing rapidly, and it is
possible to identify distinct contours of reception and accentuation in English
readings of his work. Naturally, this is not as pronounced as in Germany,
where Luhmann's sociology has generated a number of very diverse and often
competing Bielefeld offshoots. However, we can discern distinctly focused
clusters of reception in the United Kingdom ± ranging from those with a
political-theoretical focus, to those that use Luhmann in legal-sociological
research, to those that view systems theory primarily as a theory of cultural
meaning. Indeed, owing to the discrete but deep influence of Gunther
Teubner in some more sociologically oriented sectors of British legal
academies, the last years have seen a general concentration of systems-
theoretical resonance throughout British intellectual discourse. The result of
this is that, although only few academics are on much more than semi-
informed terms with Luhmann, British academia is riddled with small pockets
of Luhmannians: literal Luhmannians, legal Luhmannians, political
Luhmannians, and even radical or, now, critical Luhmannians.
This new book on Luhmann by Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos is,
both for its content and its intellectual self-positioning, an ingenious and
very interesting piece of research. At an obvious level, this book reflects the
present conditions of Luhmann-reception in the United Kingdom, and,
mirroring the simultaneous reality of wide indifference and locally intense
engagement, it is never sure whether it ought to be an introduction to
Luhmann, an application of his work, or a licence to utilize Luhmannian
motifs for intuitive analysis and extemporization. For some readers, this
might constitute a shortcoming; for some, it might be a strength. Those
wishing for a straight introduction to Luhmann might be better advised to
look elsewhere ± perhaps to Hans-Georg Moeller's work. Those looking for
more intuitive appreciation or new application might perhaps also find this
book rather cluttered with exegesis. To my mind, however, although the
balance between the introductory and the constructive is always finely held,
the book works well in a number of ways, and it can be recommended both
as a distinctive elucidation of Luhmann's oeuvre and as an important
contribution to Luhmann-inspired theory. The book also shows exceptional
awareness of other scholarship on Luhmann, and it contains many intriguing
and helpful references.
Primarily, then, if it is read as a direct, literal, advanced-introductory
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