The intersystemic rationality of administrative law: Reflexiveness, structural couplings and environmental observation

Abstract

This article seeks to elaborate a description of Administrative Law in a society differentiated in autopoietic social systems. I will employ Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory to grasp the societal dimension of Administrative Law and characterize its systemic rationality in contemporary society. My aim is to develop a sociologically informed theory that explains why this particular field of law is configured as it is today. What is at stake is the identification of the operative logic lying behind the heterogeneity of its positive manifestations. This endeavor, if successful (or convincing), promises to: generate an unified and coherent account of Administrative Law, highlighting its regulatory core features and its distinguishing identity; focus the interplay between Administrative Law and administrative power in society; complement the predominant dogmatical discourse of administrative legal science, allowing the scholar to look at Administrative Law from a different angle and engage in a re-description and reconceptualization of its main institutes and categories. My central thesis is that current Administrative Law evinces an intersystemic rationality, translated in legal configurations that aim at regulatory reflexiveness, the establishment of structural couplings and the promotion of environmental observation. Such intersystemic rationality is an answer to the functional and organizational differentiation of society in autonomous social systems, as well as to the challenges that ensue for both the Law and the Public Administration. Finally, I focus how the aforementioned configuration of Administrative Law is, on the one hand, an essential resource for administrative power to better disseminate and assert itself across society and, on the other hand, an instrument of administrative self-legitimation. I engage in a systemic and epistemic reading of democracy to still ascribe democratic quality to said legitimation.