From at least the early twentieth century, legal scholars have recognized that rights and other legal relations inhere between individual legal actors, forming a vast and complex social network. Yet, no legal scholar has used the mathematical machinery of network theory to formalize these relationships. Here, we propose the first such approach by modelling a rudimentary, static set of real property relations using network theory. Then, we apply our toy model to measure the level of modularity—essentially, the community structure—among aggregations of these real property relations and associated actors. In so doing, we show that even for a very basic set of relations and actors, law may employ modular structures to manage complexity. Property, torts, contracts, intellectual property, and other areas of the law arguably reduce information costs in similar, quantifiable ways by chopping up the world of interactions between parties into manageable modules that are semi-autonomous. We also posit that our network science approach to jurisprudential issues can be adapted to quantify many other important aspects of legal systems.

This article is part of the theme issue 'A complexity science approach to law and governance'.

至少从二十世纪初期开始，法学界就认识到权利和其他法律关系固有地存在于个体法律行为人之间，形成了一个庞大而复杂的社会网络。然而，还没有法律学者使用网络理论的数学机制来形式化这些关系。在这里，我们通过使用网络理论对一组基本的、静态的不动产关系进行建模，提出了第一个这样的方法。然后，我们应用我们的玩具模型来衡量这些不动产关系和相关参与者的聚合之间的模块化水平（本质上是社区结构）。通过这样做，我们表明，即使对于一组非常基本的关系和参与者，法律也可以采用模块化结构来管理复杂性。财产、侵权、合同、知识产权和其他领域的法律可以通过将各方之间的互动世界分割成半自治的可管理模块，以类似的、可量化的方式降低信息成本。我们还认为，我们处理法理学问题的网络科学方法可以适用于量化法律体系的许多其他重要方面。

本文是主题“法律和治理的复杂性科学方法”的一部分。