Nonlinearity, Autonomy and Resistant Law

Abstract

This chapter argues that informal and communal forms of law, such as that of social centres, occupy and enact a form of spatio-temporal ‘nonlinear informality’, as opposed to a reified linearity of state law that occurs as a result of institutionalising processes of private property. Complexity theory argues the existence of both linear and nonlinear systems, whether they be regarding time, networks or otherwise. Working in an understanding of complexity theory framework to describe the spatio-temporality of law, all forms of law are argued as nonlinear, dependent on the role of uncertainty within supposedly linear and nonlinear systems and the processes of entropy in the emergence of law. ‘Supposedly’ linear, as in order for state law to assert its authority, it must become institutionalised, crystallising material architectures, customs and symbols that we know and recognise to be law. Its appearance is argued as linear as a result of institutionalisation, enabled by the elixir of individual private property and linear time as the congenital basis of its authority. But linear institutionalisation does not account for the role of uncertainty (resistance or resistant laws) within the shaping of law and demonstrates state law’s violent totalitarianism through institutionalising absolute time. Unofficial, informal, autonomous and semi-autonomous forms of law such as those expressed by social centres (described as ‘social centre law’) remain non-institutional and thus perform a kind of informal nonlinearity, expressed through autonomy-as-practice and autonomy-as-placement, highlighting the nonlinear nature of autonomy and the central role of spatio-temporality within law and its resistance. The piece argues it is important that lawyers and other thinkers understand the role of space and time in the practices of law, how forms of spatio-temporality shape the ideologies that determine law and how it is organised, in order to better understand the origin and trajectory of law, resistance and the world it shapes around us and the usefulness of complexity theory in demonstrating this.

Keywords: nonlinearity, resistant law, autonomy, legal pluralism, complexity