Changing maps: Empirical legal autopoiesis

Superficially at odds with the idea of empirical research, autopoiesis is s hown on closer study to demand a fundamental reconsideration of the empiric o-theoretical relationship. This idea is developed firstly in the context o f a possible methodology and secondly in the application of that methodolog y to a particular regulatory situation. The aim is to arrive at a more adeq uately complex understanding of the regulatory process - as well as of the process of legal sociological research itself.