Autonomy of Law in the European Conception of the Legal State
Autonomy of Law in the European Conception of the Legal State

Summary/Abstract: The principle of a democratic legal state has become a paradigm for modern democracies and an essential value of the EU. It still raises, though, emotional disputes. This text explores its selected aspects, specifically the theory of the autonomy of the legal system, discussing in this respect the findings of legal academics from different legislations, representing different legal systems and cultures. The following research focuses on the concept of systemicity as outlined by Hans Kelsen, which is confronted with Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems, eventually adapted in the legal sciences by Günther Teubner, to whom jurisprudence owes the theory of autopoietic law. The research includes reflections on the concepts of ‘rule of law’ and ‘legalism’ from the perspective of the autonomy of law, as well as its dimensions in the views of jurisprudence. Finally, the study presents the idea of the autopoietic nature of the legal system in the context of its features applicable in the EU legal framework – likewise in the constitutional state. The study concludes and presents evidence that concepts of the rule of law and legalism developed in the European conception of the democratic legal state – co-creating the paradigm of the systematicity of law in force since the beginning of the 20th century – are reflected in practice by the phenomenon of the legal system’s autopoieticity and autonomy based on social contextuality of law.

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