Undecidabilities and Law

Rhizome bundles, multiple agencies, and ascription

Edmundo Balsemão-Pires — 2025-12-02

Starting with a review of G. Deleuze’s and F. Guattari’s metaphysical and methodological assumptions in Mille-Plateaux, this paper aims to critically appraise Bruno Latour’s rhizomatic Epistemology, particularly in agency and network formation, and its Leibnizian inspiration, as mediated by G. de Tarde and G. Deleuze. It also seeks to evaluate the soundness of some of ANT’s metaphysical assumptions, such as the metaphysical primacy of forces and forces irreducibility, in light of the increasing participation of artificial agents in communication and social interaction and the growing technological transformation of the 'natural attitude.' The meaning of artificial agency is the empirical perspective through which I will evaluate ANT’s epistemological and metaphysical claims. The paper will define artificial agents and artificial agency and describe the social context of the 'pool of agents' that includes humans and machines in digital networks of human-machine interactions. The normative themes of causality, accountability, and responsibility of artificial agents, central to the Ethics of artificial intelligence, will also be explored within the critical appraisal of ANT’s description of networks.

Critical Global Value Chains Laws

Luca Tenreira — 2025-12-02

The European Union's regulation of corporate abuses regarding human rights and the environment in Global Value Chains (GVCs) is supposedly transformative. Central to this regulatory framework is the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D), which mandates that companies identify, prevent, and mitigate adverse impacts on human rights and the environment throughout their value chains. Delving into the implications of such a semiotic object by referring to Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizome, developed in A Thousand Plateaus, the paper critically investigates this paradigm shift. To do so, the paper makes the concept of rhizome instrumental, providing tools for situating law in a co-produced landscape rather than separating law from the landscape. Moving the analysis from an abstract legal plane towards an immanent, material plane, the paper scrutinizes how the meta-norm of due diligence operates both as a regulatory discharge to companies and as a mechanism for co-producing regulatory outcomes through data-based, knowledge-based, ultimately value-based framings. Entering the landscape of corporate due diligence means considering the diverse data, instruments, and expertise involved in assessing the socio environmental impact of an economic activity. How do the entanglements of expert knowledge and institutional regimes produce normative discourses constitutive of an ‘impact’. Overall, this paper comes from a personal sense of dissatisfaction with the current state of a new regulatory object referred to as GVCs Laws. It is then a first attempt to reflexively look at these complex structures without overlooking their affects and effects. The contribution seeks to inform what ultimately shape the meaning of ‘impact’, of ‘due diligence’ and how does this subsequently shape a specific – and not desirable nor reflexive – pathway for socio-ecological transitions.

Mycelium Law

Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos — 2025-12-02

This text imagines the law as a rhizome, and performs the law as rhizome by combining strands of thought that connect but also allow spaces of disconnection. The text draws parallels between the law on the one hand, and the mycelium network on the other, focussing on the multiplicity of extensions that open a space of innumerable encounters. The analysis revolves around the Australian case Munkara v Santos where the movements of aboriginal spirits on land and underwater are taken into consideration. Through a critique of the decision, I argue that law can and is potentially mycelial, both textually and materially. This, however, is not without its problems. The law often forgets the need to encounter others in their own language, and to place the wider mycelial interests in the core of its actions.

Rhizomatic Networks in Legal Transplants

Roman Uliasz — 2025-12-02

This article proposes a rhizomatic model of legal concept evolution, highlighting how language, cognition, culture, and legal frameworks interact to shape meaning in transplanted concepts across jurisdictions.

“Raise the Black Flag!”

Christos Marneros — 2025-12-02

The pirates were (and, perhaps, are) for the state apparatus and its law the outsider par excellence, a miasma and transgressor which needed to be hunted down and exterminated before it manages to infect the “good citizens” with its immorality, brutality and complete ignorance of a sense of duty. On the other hand, radical literature presents a more positive image of the pirates and their societies. It argues that pirate societies were characterised by a sense of mutual aid and equality, based on different ways of living, sense of justice and understanding of a (non)law. The article focuses on the Golden Age of piracy (between mid-17^th to early 18^th century) to shed more light on this conflicting image of the pirates.

Furthermore, the article draws from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s idiosyncratic terminology, especially terms such as those of the conceptual persona and the nomad and presents the figure of the pirate as a similar conceptual persona to that of the nomad. In doing so, it aims to argue that the persona of the pirate could be an interesting one in an effort to rethink our ways of existing beyond the current oppressive state’s apparatus and its official law, towards a way of living that aims to disorient the dogmatism and hierarchy of the law and which aims do politics following its own (non)law.

Rhizomatic Law and China’s Experience

Magdalena Łągiewska — 2025-12-02

The People’s Republic of China was founded on 1 October 1949. After the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping decided to launch a new series of reforms, widely known as the China’s “opening up” policy (gaige kaifang改革开放). With this new idea, China had to develop the entire legal system from scratch. All the changes were introduced for the sake of building a market economy and boosting the country’s economic growth. It is worth noting that the legal system of this country is highly influenced by philosophy, social context and political views. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explain the past experience in building China’s legal system and its future changes based on the concept of “rhizome”. Therefore, this study pays attention to some philosophical and social issues, including Confucian philosophy, which still play a crucial role in shaping Chinese reality and law. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the Chinese legal system is a good example of “rhizomatic law”. In the case of the PRC, this idea should be perceived through the lens of the complexity and dynamism of the legal framework. The Chinese legal landscape is built on the interplay between formal laws, informal norms and cultural traditions.

Navigating the Rhizomatic Revolution in E-Healthcare Access in France in the Post-2021 Era

Anne Wagner — 2025-12-02

France’s healthcare system is undergoing a significant digital transformation, exemplified by the Health Ségur initiative, which focuses on the digital revolution. This shift is revolutionizing access to medical information, improving efficiency, and streamlining healthcare processes. Emphasizing patient-centric care, this evolution integrates advanced technologies like telemedicine and AI diagnostics, reflecting a global trend towards technologically enhanced healthcare. This transformation not only promises more efficient and accessible healthcare but also marks a step towards a future where digital innovation is fundamental to effective healthcare delivery and legal compliance.

Law Without Roots: Mapping the Rhizomatic Turn in Legal Thought and Practice

Anne Wagner — 2025-12-02

This special issue explores how legal systems evolve through dispersed, relational, and non-hierarchical processes. Drawing inspiration from Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of the rhizome (1980), contributors examine the ways in which law swings between polarities – sovereignty and subversion, norm and rupture – and sprawls across geographies, disciplines, and ontologies. The papers assembled here challenge arborescent legal imaginaries, proposing instead a fluid and transversal understanding of law’s formations, transplants, and transformations