HANS KELSEN’S PURE THEORY OF LAW AS CRITIQUE OF THE “AUTHORITARIAN” UNDERSTANDING OF LAW AND JURISPRUDENCE
HANS KELSEN’S PURE THEORY OF LAW AS CRITIQUE OF THE “AUTHORITARIAN” UNDERSTANDING OF LAW AND JURISPRUDENCE

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I analyse Hans Kelsen’s understanding of jurisprudence and law – by contrasting the normative-dogmatic understanding, which I will call “authoritarian”. By establishing the primacy of politics and rejecting the prescriptive function of jurisprudence, Hans Kelsen enabled a democratic concept of law (and of jurisprudence), and at the same time a critical and political approach. Kelsen defines the law from a dynamic perspective, which justifies the constant changeability of the law – and in this respect the primacy of democratic politics over dogmatic jurisprudence. The normative basis for Kelsen’s understanding of jurisprudence is his relativism, which is based on a moral position on the autonomy of the individual.

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