"THE LAW-SCIENCE CHASM" is a socio-legal study that takes seriously the varying approaches to science that physicians and scientists use, as compared to legal actors such as judges and lawyers. Offering a way to mediate and translate their different perspectives and assumptions, Gilson uses sociological and philosophical methodologies to explain each discipline to the other.

"Gilson's book takes seriously the idea of the autopoietic closure of society's communicative subsystems and works out the consequences in particular for science and law. This analysis both lends support to the...