Tao, Liu --- "Legal dogmatics in systems theory" [2019] ELECD 307; in Shi, Jichun (ed), "Renmin Chinese Law Review" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 272

Book Title: Renmin Chinese Law Review

Editor(s): Shi, Jichun

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781788976732

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Legal dogmatics in systems theory

Author(s): Tao, Liu

Number of pages: 23

Abstract/Description:

The dispute between legal dogmatics and socio-legal studies is part of the crisis of the Western legal tradition. The response to this dispute and the way to solve the crisis lie in externally observing the issue of legal autonomy in the Western legal tradition, but the current literature has not focused externally on the core of legal dogmatics – normativity. Systems theory places emphasis on the legal norm itself, it explains the legal dogmatics in analyzing the self-referencing of the legal concept, the normative expectation of law’s function, and it makes plain the co-existence of law’s openness and closure. It also offers a response to the issue of legal argumentation in legal dogmatics. The concepts of distinction, re-entry, redundancy and structural coupling all focus on legal norms from an external observation perspective and construct a different argument on legal autonomy and legal dogmatics, thus adding new knowledge to this dispute.