Systemic legislation: By what right are distinctions made?

Abstract

A question on the right to make legislative distinctions is important to determine the essence of legislative content. Starting with Aristotle’s question on capacity development for legislation that rests outside of it, this paper uses systems theory and investigates common principles of complex units to enhance what should be systemic in the laws and to address the right to make distinctions on which rules are based. The paper enumerates basic elements of systems theory that legislators should consider to make legislation adaptable to real-life conditions and their changes. Findings from systems theory put public accountability and integrity of public bodies and employees into a light that illuminates the whole in all its relations with different parts and environments, feedback, self-organisation, emergence and adaptation. These elements form systemic legislation.

Keywords

• systems theory
• legislation
• complexity
• adaptable norms