My intention in this paper is a modest one, and a preliminary to more detailed analysis of the relevance of complexity theory to law. Accordingly, this paper presents an argument in three phases: it looks first at the nature of complexity and the philosophical grounds which, I suggest, inform a social theory of complexity; second, it ascribes characteristics which can be seen as constitutive of complexity, and applies those to the field of law, before looking (third) at how an acknowledgment of complexity can assist us in the process of normative reconstruction
