Legal coding replaces omnipresent force with a regulated, predictable present.

Evidence

At the same time physical force is portrayed as a future event, the inception of which can at present be avoided, since the conditions for its release are known. Both temporal references are based on the effective regulation of the present power-stance, i.e. on the secondary coding of power by means of law. They replace mere omnipresence of physical force which, through the presence of a regulated present, is now compatible with the time-horizon of a different kind of, but no longer current, past or future. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 711

Categorization

• QUESTION: How exactly does this ‘secondary coding’ fail when the legal system itself is morally ungrounded - as in Darlington’s case with appeasement-era Germany? Ishiguro’s drama hinges on the law’s own legitimacy being hollow.