Complexity Theory and Law

Mapping an Emergent Jurisprudence

Jamie Murray, Thomas Webb, Steven Wheatley, Jamie Murray, Thomas Webb, Steven Wheatley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351658171
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Droit
• Subtopic: Théorie et pratique du droit

This collection of essays explores the different ways the insights from complexity theory can be applied to law. Complexity theory – a variant of systems theory – views law as an emergent, complex, self-organising system comprised of an interactive network of actors and systems that operate with no overall guiding hand, giving rise to complex, collective behaviour in law communications and actions. Addressing such issues as the unpredictability of legal systems, the ability of legal systems to adapt to changes in society, the importance of context, and the nature of law, the essays look to the implications of a complexity theory analysis for the study of public policy and administrative law, international law and human rights, regulatory practices in business and finance, and the practice of law and legal ethics. These are areas where law, which craves certainty, encountersunending, irresolvable complexity. This collection shows the many ways complexity theory thinking can reshape and clarify our understanding of the various problems relating to the theory and practice of law.

Index

Note: Page numbers in italic indicate a figure and page numbers in bold indicate a table on the corresponding page.

A- and B-series conceptions of time 102

Abbott, Andrew 263

accountability: lack in financial system 155; non-state armed groups 129–130, 135–136, 141, 143–145

Achilles and the tortoise, Zeno’s paradox of 100–101

adaptation via learning or evolution 23, 27

adaptive capacity 196, 199, 203–205

adaptive management 191, 199–201, 203, 205

administrative justice processes 14

Agamben, Giorgio 241

agency: definition of 252; legal 253; moral 253; normative legal ethics and 251–254; occupational role and 252; operational 266; professional norms and 262–264; as rule-constrained 267; situatedness of 253–254, 266, 270; social structure and 256; system and 256–257

agents and agent sets 31–32

aggregated beliefs 125–126

Ago, Roberto 143

a-legality 242–243

Alvarez, Alejandro 98

Anzilotti, Dionisio 101

aporia 246

applied graph theory 33

arche-writing 238

Aristotle 101

Arthur, Brian 28

Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts 131, 142

Asian debt crisis 162–163

assisted self-organisation 17, 191, 201–202, 203, 205

asylum and complexity 66–85

asylum application procedures 14–15

auto-interpretation 97

autonomy: bottom-up nature of 227; nonlinear nature of 213, 228; semi-autonomy 217, 228; social centres and 217, 226, 229; socio-spatial strategy 227, 228, 229

autonomy-as-placement 213, 216, 226, 228–229

autonomy-as-practice 213, 216, 226–228, 229

autopoiesis 6–7, 18; functional differentiation in 68; identity and 7, 68, 73; international criminal law system 144; justice and 245; operational closure 236; systems theory and 219; utility of 68; vulnerability and 67, 72, 79

Axelrod, Robert 256

bad apples theory of professional misconduct 253, 261

banking 17; complex regulatory spaces for 170–186; confidence 179–180; liquidity and 177–179; risk and 171...