Complexity Theory And Law: Mapping An Emergent Jurisprudence

Description

This collection of essays explores the different ways the insights from complexity theory can be applied to law. Complexity theory – a variant of systems theory – views law as an emergent, complex, self-organising system comprised of an interactive network of actors and systems that operate with no overall guiding hand, giving rise to complex, collective behaviour in law communications and actions. Addressing such issues as the unpredictability of legal systems, the ability of legal systems to adapt to changes in society, the importance of context, and the nature of law, the essays look to the implications of a complexity theory analysis for the study of public policy and administrative law, international law and human rights, regulatory practices in business and finance, and the practice of law and legal ethics. These are areas where law, which craves certainty, encounters unending, irresolvable complexity. This collection shows the many ways complexity theory thinking can reshape and clarify our understanding of the various problems relating to the theory and practice of law. Encountering law's complexity / Jamie Murray, Thomas E. Webb and Steven Wheatley -- Mapping law's complexity with "legal maps" / J.B. Ruhl and Daniel M. Katz -- Complexity : knowing it, measuring it, assessing it / Neville Harris -- Asylum and complexity : the vulnerable identity of law as a complex system / Thomas E. Webb -- Explaining change in the United Nations system : the curious status of Security Council Resolution 80 (1950) / Steven Wheatley -- The 'consensus approach' of the European Court of Human Rights as a rational response to complexity / Dimitrios Tsarapatsanis -- Prospects for prosecuting non-state armed groups under international criminal law : perspectives from complexity theory / Anna Marie Brennan -- Governing complexity / Mark A. Chinen -- Complex regulatory space and banking / Michael Leach -- Regulating for ecological resilience : a new agenda for financial regulation / Jamie Murray -- Nonlinearity, autonomy and resistant law / Lucy Finchett-Maddock -- Complexity and the normativity of law / Minka Woermann -- Regulating the practise of practice : on agency and entropy in legal ethics / Julian Webb.