From Quantum Fields to Institutional Fields: A Field-Theoretic Framework for the Structural Autonomy of Normative Systems
Abstract This paper develops an extended framework termed Institutional Field Theory (IFT), drawing structural inspiration from quantum field theory (QFT) while rejecting reductionism. Rather than asking whether legal principles must conform to physical laws, the paper proposes that normative systems constitute higher-order emergent fields operating as effective theories within layered ontological strata. Institutional fields exhibit structural properties analogous to symmetry, conservation, locality, renormalization, and phase transition. These correspondences are not reductive but structural. The analysis concludes that legal systems are physically compatible yet ontologically autonomous, and that field-theoretic language offers a rigorous framework for modeling institutional stability and transformation. 1. Introduction: From Conformance to Structural Mapping The question of whether legal principles must conform to physical laws presupposes a hierarchical reduction: that normati...