MEDIATION AS A COMMUNICATIVE SYSTEM

Abstract

The article is devoted to the theoretical comprehension of mediation as a self-referential communicative system within the framework of Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. The study focuses on the ontological status of mediation as an autopoietic system that reproduces itself exclusively through internal communicative operations. The mechanisms of functioning of such a system are analyzed: from the biological template of autopoiesis developed by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to the specific binary code of “openness/closure” that determines its logic of existence and fundamentally distinguishes it from the judicial system with its code of “legal/illegal.” The phenomenon of the ontological pluralism of conflict is revealed through the lens of Eugen Ehrlich’s concept of “living law,” where each party appears as an operationally closed consciousness with its own cognitive reality, while the conflict itself is treated as excessive complexity. It is demonstrated how specifically dialogicity serves as a mechanism for the reduction of social complexity and the construction of new structures of interaction between the parties. Special attention is paid to the role of the mediator as a second-order observer ensuring the generation of relevance and filtration of information without interfering with the content, as well as to the structural coupling between the mediation system and the legal system: they remain operationally closed, yet interact through “boundary objects” (agreements) which law perceives as facts that produce legal consequences, without controlling the internal process of their creation. It is proven that mediation is parallel to the legal system, capable of autonomous functioning and creating a “living” social reality exclusively through the synthesis of dialogical operations of the parties, which confirms its unique status in the legal space.