The Normative Knot : On Law and Politics in the Net of Networks (Der normative Knoten: Über Recht und Politik im Netz der Netzwerke)

This paper presented at the 47th Meeting of German-Speaking Public Law Assistants in Berlin (March 2007) attempts to sketch some preliminary contours of a normative network theory. Transdisciplinary translations of network concepts into the language of law carry the yoke of a semiotic gravitas that should not be underestimated. Hence, only careful metaphorological and conceptual analysis allows for a genuinely legal grip on various network structures - a normative grip that turns out to be a nodal one, always centred around and focussed on the knots within the net of networks