This book uses Niklas Luhmann's systems theory to explore how the legal system operates as one of modern society's subsystems. The authors demonstrate how this theory alters our understanding of some of the most important and controversial issues within law: the nature of judicial communication and legal argument; the claim that it can be right to disobey law; the character of legal pluralism and globalisation; time and its construction within law; the significance of the rule of law and human rights and the role of appeals to, and within, law. Systems theory enables the authors to demonstrate how the legal system observes its own operations through its own communications, and how this contrasts with the manner in which law is observed by other systems such as the media and politics. In this context the authors explore the constraints imposed by systems, in particular the legal system, upon the individuals who participate in them.

This book demonstrates the empirical gains and integrative potentials of social systems theory for the sociology of law. Against a backdrop of classical and contemporary sociological debates about law and society, it observes judicial review as an instrument for the self-steering of a functionally differentiated legal system. This allows close investigation of the US Supreme Court’s jurisprudence of rights, both in legal terms and in relation to structural transformations of modern society. The result is a thought-provoking account of conceptual and doctrinal developments concerning racial discrimination, race-based affirmative action, freedom of religion, and prohibition of its establishment, detailing the Court’s response to boundary tensions between functionally differentiated social systems. Preliminary examination of the European Court of Human Rights’ privacy jurisprudence suggests the pertinence of the analytic framework to other rights and jurisdictions. This contribution is particularly timely in the context of increasing appeals to fundamental rights around the world and the growing role of national and international high courts in determining their concrete meanings.

New Private Law Theory is pluralist, comparative, application-oriented, transnational and reflects critical approaches.

"Eminently readable. One need look nowhere else. I regularly teach courses on this subject and have encountered no work that comes close to achieving what von Papp has achieved." George A Berman, Columbia Law School, European Law Review This timely book addresses the main areas of tension between EU law and international arbitration, looking at both commercial and investment treaty arbitration. It opens pathways for practical solutions based on communication between the different regimes. At the same time, it offers a sound theoretical basis that allows for addressing the core problem as normative conflict between legitimate public interests and the 'privatisation of justice'. The book is divided into five parts. It introduces key aspects of the overall tension between EU law and international arbitration, before setting out the theoretical framework that understands EU law, international commercial arbitration, and investment treaty arbitration as closed regimes. The author then addresses the core problem of finding the limits to contracting out of the EU legal regime, both on a jurisdictional and a substantive level. This is then linked to the question of trust-building in legal outcomes of the relevant regimes. The book concludes with a short summary and key theses. Combining a theoretical and normative with a more pragmatic approach to very topical issues, this book offers invaluable insights for academics and practitioners, private and public, commercial and investment treaty lawyers alike.

In recent years, there have been a number of concerns about the recognition of religious laws and the existence of religious courts and tribunals. There has also been the growing literature on legal pluralism which seeks to understand how more than one legal system can and should exist within one social space. However, whilst a number of important theoretical works concerning legal pluralism in the context of cultural rights have been published, little has been published specifically on religion. Religion and Legal Pluralism explores the extent to which religious laws are already recognised by the state and the extent to which religious legal systems, such as Sharia law, should be accommodated.

What can lawyers and sociologists learn from each other about religion in the twenty-first century?

This book uses Niklas Luhmann's systems theory to explore how the legal system operates as one of modern society's subsystems. The authors demonstrate how this theory alters our understanding of some of the most important and controversial issues within law: the nature of judicial communication and legal argument; the claim that it can be right to disobey law; the character of legal pluralism and globalisation; time and its construction within law; the significance of the rule of law and human rights and the role of appeals to, and within, law. Systems theory enables the authors to demonstrate how the legal system observes its own operations through its own communications, and how this contrasts with the manner in which law is observed by other systems such as the media and politics. In this context the authors explore the constraints imposed by systems, in particular the legal system, upon the individuals who participate in them.

"This book is complementary to our book A sociology of jurisprudence, although it is not necessary for readers to have read that book in order to engage with what we present here."--Preface.