The seminar discusses mediation as a norm producing phenomenon and its relationship to law. It explores the nature of its normativity and examines its capacity to contribute to social regulation.
Based on the Autopoietic Social Systems paradigm, mediation is interpreted as an interaction which produces normative configurations by means of autopoiesis processes. The hypothesis of mediation representing a form of communicative action, according to Jürgen Habermas’s definition, is also examined.
An alternative to the current legal regulation of mediation is finally proposed, in line with reflexive law described by Teubner. Such a “reflexive mediation” would be a functional equivalent to law, capable of contributing to the stable management of social complexity, even where formal law is absent in certain circumstances.
