Presents a critical description and a performative inversion of the theory of legal autopoiesis as developed by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. This book introduces this theory in terms of society at large and the legal system specifically. It reveals the aporetic structure of autopoiesis. It operates as a critical response to autopoiesis.

This is the first book to consider German sociologist Niklas Luhmann's social theory in a critical legal context. His theory is introduced here both in terms of society at large and the legal system specifically, and the book reveals the aporetic structure of autopoiesis, aligning it with postmodern approaches to law. Readers will find it operates both as an introduction to the relevance of Luhmann's social theory for law, as well as a critical response to autopoiesis.

"Can theory be critical without being Critical Theory? To probe this question, Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos enlists the unlikely suspect Niklas Luhmann. Through detailed aesthetic and philosophical analyses, the author rehabilitates critique as an opening of intellectual distance and dispassionate perspective rather than its more customary role as moral imperative." - Professor William Rasch, Indiana University, Bloomington, author of Niklas Luhmann's Modernity: The Paradoxes of Differentiation "An original approach in thought and style. The discussion on paradox in the context of postmodernity is fascinating and fundamentally useful. The selection of Luhmann's citations is impressive. The book works though a dense net of insights which condensate and confirm themselves while being written/read. It is a major achievement to reach this consistency at such a high level of abstraction." - Professor Jean Clam, CNRS, author of Droit et société chez Niklas Luhmann "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...the book as a whole is far more adventurous and challenging than its rivals in its interrogation of legal certainties...this is a complex and stimulating book, which certainly deserves a strong recommendation." - Chris Thornhill, Journal of Law and Society, Volume 37 Issue 2, 2010 "[Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos] has undoubtedly succeeded in reading Luhmann's theory in an unorthodox critical, radical and even poetic manner." - Jiri Priban, The Modern Law Review, vol. 73 no. 5 (2010)