The sins of functional differentiation: A comment

Abstract

In his paper Gonçalo Vasconcelos Vilaça addresses several critiques concerning the systems theory’s answer to the legitimacy problem of transnational law. This answer, according to him, could be summarized by the by the label “let’s do nothing” (or “let us leave it to the systems themselves”). The critique I find particularly worth of exploring is the pointing out the social systems theory’s allegedly implicit normative claim that functional differentiation and autopoietic systems “ought to be maintained, never short-circuited”. Can we adequately confront global risks and the expansive tendencies of the economic system just by means of such a modest normative claim?