Yaşlılık Hukukunun Anatomisi: ABD Örneğinde İçsel Farklılaşma ve Biyo-Politik Yönetimsellik

Abstract

Bu çalışma, 20. yüzyılın son çeyreğinde Amerika Birleşik Devletleri merkezli olarak kurumsallaşan Yaşlılık Hukuku (Elder Law) disiplininin evrimini, Niklas Luhmann’ın sistem teorisi ve Michel Foucault’nun biyo-politik analizi üzerinden sosyolojik bir perspektifle incelemektedir. Makale kapsamında, Elder Law Jurnal ve Amerikan Barolar Birliği’nin Bifocal dergilerinin arşivleri ile Adalet Bakanlığı’nın yayımladığı The Elder Justice Roadmap gibi stratejik belgeler ve Better Call Saul dizisinden hareketle popüler kültüre yansımaları üzerinden bir içerik analizi yürütülmüştür. Analiz sonucunda, Yaşlılık Hukuku’nun salt bir branşlaşma faaliyeti olmadığı; aksine hukuk sisteminin demografik karmaşıklığı kendi operasyonel kodlarında (ehliyetli/ehliyetsiz) yeniden inşa ettiği otopoyetik bir içsel farklılaşma sürecinin ürünü olduğu saptanmıştır. Aynı zamanda bu hukuki tekniklerin, yaşlı bireyin biyolojik süreçlerini, zihinsel kapasitesini ve mali varlıklarını mikro-denetim ağlarına eklemleyen biyo-politik bir yönetimsellik stratejisi işlevi gördüğü tartışılmaktadır. Çalışma, hukukun bir “tercüme mekanizması” olarak işleyişi ile “iktidar teknolojisi” olarak nüfuz edişi arasındaki paradoksal ilişkiyi ortaya koyarak, Yaşlılık Hukuku’nun modern yönetimin biyo-medikal ve algoritmik bir uzantısına dönüşme eğilimini kuramsal düzeyde analiz etmekte; bu sürecin hukukun özgürleştirici potansiyeli ile yönetimsel işlevi arasındaki gerilimi nasıl yeniden biçimlendirdiğini sorgulamaktadır.

Keywords

• Yaşlılık hukuku
• Sistem teorisi
• Otopoyez
• Biyo-politika
• Yönetimsellik

The Anatomy of Elder Law: Internal Differentiation and Biopolitical Governmentality in the U.S. Case

Abstract

This study examines the institutionalization of Elder Law as a distinct legal discipline in the United States during the final quarter of the twentieth century, through a dual theoretical lens combining Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory with Michel Foucault’s bio-political analytics. Drawing on a discursive archive reading of The Elder Law Journal, the ABA’s Bifocal, The Elder Justice Roadmap, and the television series Better Call Saul as a cultural illustration, the study finds that Elder Law does not constitute a mere branching specialization. Rather, it is seen as an autopoietic internal differentiation process through which the legal system reconstructs demographic complexity within its own operational codes. The archival evidence further suggests that these legal techniques function as a bio-political governmentality strategy, integrating the elderly individual’s cognitive capacity, biological condition, and financial assets into micro-surveillance networks. By illuminating the paradoxical relationship between law’s operation as a “translation mechanism” and its penetration as a “technology of power,” the study interrogates how Elder Law tends toward becoming a bio-medical and algorithmic extension of modern governance — and how this process reshapes the tension between law’s emancipatory potential and its managerial function.

Keywords

• Elder law
• Systems theory
• Autopoiesis
• Bio-politics
• Governmentality

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