Michel van de Kerchove

Constructing the complexity of law : towards a dialectic theory

There is no doubt that the law has always been complicated. It is a frequently heard complaint these days that we suffer from legislative inflation and that legal procedures are interminable and uncertain. But Leibniz wrote as early as 1678 that “it is not possible to know the law without a very large library”1, while Bentham in an open letter to the American citizens said: “Everywhere the common law has set foot, security has disappeared”2.

Towards an Interdisciplinary Theory of Law

The formulation of an interdisciplinary theory of law pre-supposes that several conditions, which we plan to examine in turn, are; met. First, we have to conceive a discourse on law which, whilst not adopting the internal point of view of private citizens and officials, does not reduce the specific nature of this point of view but takes it into account. Chapter I will try, therefore, to define and justify an external discourse which takes account of this internal point of view. Chapter II will envisage an inter-disciplinary theory of law which, while respecting the preceding conditions, aims at supplying a real explanation of the legal phenomenon, and not only a description and a systematisation of this phenomenon. In this chapter, we will also focus on the problems inherent in such an approach.