In this article, the author discusses translation as an institution. He draws on three aspects of sociologist Niklas Luhmann. The first relates to expectations, norms, and decisions. The emphasis on the translator as an active decision-maker within complex structures of power is something rather new. The second aspect mentions Luhmann’s concept of communication, and may have methodological consequences that, again, may serve to shift the focus of some historical research, or at least act as a reminder. The third bears on self-reference and self-reflexiveness, and has, according to the author, profound implications for the way in which we perceive the nature and status of the discourse about translation, including the own academic discourse on the subject.