The scoop of the day
Kelsen who?
Austrian American jurist, legal
philosopher, educator, and author
on international law Hans Kelsen
(October 11, 1881 – April 19,
1973) is credited with developing
the concept of "pure theory" of
law. To avoid persecution for his
Jewish ancestry, he had to uproot
his family and move around a lot,
but this allowed him to meet and
network with legal experts from
all over the world. Many of his
works on public law were written
while he was a professor at a
university in Vienna. Kelsen was
asked to propose the constitution
for the Austrian Republic in 1919;
it was adopted the following year
in 1920. He later served on the
Austrian Constitutional Court but
was forced to resign due to
political pressures.
Almost 400 of Kelsen's works are
on legal philosophy. In his books
Allgemeine Staatslehre (1925)
and Reine Rechtslehre (1926), he
argued against the validity of
natural law (Introduction to the
Problems of Legal Theory; 1934).
"Pure theory" was Kelsen's
Kantian take on legal positivism.
Hans Kelsen's theory is still widely
cited as a seminal text in the
academic;study;of;law.
Source: Hans Kelsen | IVR website and blog (wordpress.com)
The concept
The Pure Theory of Law
Kelsen sought to identify the
distinctive features of legal
systems. It was a purely theoretical
description of law because it did
not reduce the study of law to the
level of psychology or sociology.
That's what set Kelsen apart from
the other Scandinavian realists.
Kelsen argued that the command
theorists were incorrect to view the
law as the sovereign's mandate
enforced by force. Why? Because if
that were the case, the law and a
gunman's command would be
identical, but they are not.
Unlike the gunman's orders, the
law is normative and ought; and
this ought is binding. Simply put, a
valid law must be followed in the
letter to be considered law. Why,
then, does this obligation exist?
It was legitimate because it
assumed a normative framework
within which legal cognition could
take place. Kelsen's goal was to
create a "pure theory of law," or a
science of law that is detached
from any moral or ethical
considerations. Since morality
was nothing more to Kelsen than
ideology, he believed that any
explanation of the normativity of
law had to be divorced from
morality.
Then Kelsen admitted that the
fundamental norm was an
invention rather than a given. He
argued that the dominant legal
theories of the time were tainted
by either an attempt to reduce
law to the natural or social
sciences, or by the imposition of
morality and political ideology. –
CONTINUED ON PG 02.
Source:
https://entreabogadosteveas.wordpress.com/
2015/05/01/foto-de-kelsen-cuando-era-nino-y-
ya-que-andamos-en-esas-tambien-de-
carbonell/
The Kelsen Saga
HANS KELSEN
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Kelsen v. Hart
ANALYSIS
