Hybridization, Change and the Expansion of Law

Abstract

Legal and political communications have core functions in modern and functionally differentiated societies in making collective decisions and creating generalized norms. They combine the conveyance of meaning across all sectors of society with operative decision-making procedures which are perceived of as legitimate. They have developed relatively stable institutions which are also changeable, and as communicative systems and semantics they have enabled the handling of a variety of social and other conflicts and disagreements by the use of legitimately accepted institutions and procedures. They address problems which are semantically constructed and regulated, but not directly solved. They enable complex and comprehensive forms of communication translated from a variety of semantics into the generalized political and legal codes. Decision-making can then be effected, and an impression is given that something is being done. Law and politics are thus labelled the immune systems of society and are seen as not only having vital decision-making functions, but also as being vital in the construction of meaning and social integration in highly complex and differentiated societies and in ways generally perceived of as legitimate (Luhmann 1992).