Systems theory, law, and artificial intelligence

a Luhmannian approach

Abstract

This article examines law as a social system of communication through Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, emphasizing its relevance for contemporary sociolegal studies. The research problem is to understand how concepts such as communication, system and environment, complexity, autopoiesis, operational closure, cognitive openness, legal code, programs, decision-making, and normative expectations help explain the operation of law in modern society. The methodology consists of a theoretical-conceptual reconstruction with an introductory and pedagogical purpose, based on Luhmann’s works and systems-oriented sociolegal literature. The discussion argues that law does not directly reproduce social complexity; rather, it selects problems and reconstructs them through legal communications, categories, and procedures. The article applies this framework to the regulation of digital platforms, generative artificial intelligence, artificial communication, and algorithmic decision-making. It concludes that law stabilizes normative expectations in a functionally differentiated society, while remaining unable to fully control the technical, economic, political, and communicative dynamics that it observes and processes through its own legal structures.