Luís Heleno Terrinha: The intersystemic rationality of Administrative Law: reflexiveness, structural couplings and environmental observation

Abstract

This article proposes 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.
My aim is to develop a sociologically informed theory explaining the current configuration of this particular legal field, so as to discern the operative logic underlying the heterogeneity of its positive manifestations. This endeavor 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 contemporary Administrative Law evinces an intersystemic rationality, translated in legal structures that underpin regulatory reflexiveness, 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.

Keywords: social theory, administrative law, systems theory, rationality of law, autopoiesis, social systems, reflexive law