Abstract

From a historical perspective the reflection of opposites is a creative strategy of coping with infinite regress. The lawfulness of law is only a particular version of the general paradox that occurs when a distinction is applied to itself. Common legal techniques of avoiding the paradox of self-reference amount to evacuating it or to building hierarchies. Modern strategies futurize the problem under the paradigms of autonomy and procedurality. With increasing complexity legal self-descriptions all the more cling to the ideals of completeness, coherence, and accurate generalisation. However, one can retrace antinomical structures: The legal system is at the same time incomplete, caught in multiple binds, and inadequate from case to case due to highly selective concepts. The law keeps producing conflicts that again must be legally resolved.