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Kelsenian Legal Science and the Nature of Law

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

  • Offers a detailed critical analysis of the distinctive Kelsenian approach to the nature of law
  • Unique in being the first to conduct such an analysis in the English language
  • Features the work of a range of established European scholars

Part of the book series: Law and Philosophy Library (LAPS, volume 118)

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Legal Science Before the Tribunal of Validity

  2. Beyond Natural Law?

  3. Against Practical Reason

  4. Legal Science and Human Rights

  5. The Triumph of Legal Science?

Keywords

About this book

This book critically examines the conception of legal science and the nature of law developed by Hans Kelsen. It provides a single, dedicated space for a range of established European scholars to engage with the influential work of this Austrian jurist, legal philosopher, and political philosopher.

The introduction provides a thematization of the Kelsenian notion of law as a legal science. Divided into six parts, the chapter contributions feature distinct levels of analysis. Overall, the structure of the book provides a sustained reflection upon central aspects of Kelsenian legal science and the nature of law.

Parts one and two examine the validity of the project of Kelsenian legal science with particular reference to the social fact thesis, the notion of a science of positive law and the specifically Kelsenian concept of the basic norm (Grundnorm). The next three parts engage in a critical analysis of the relationship ofKelsenian legal science to constitutionalism, practical reason, and human rights.

The last part involves an examination of the continued pertinence of Kelsenian legal science as a theory of the nature of law with a particular focus upon contemporary non-positivist theories of law. The conclusion discusses the increasing distance of contemporary theories of legal positivism from a Kelsenian notion of legal science in its consideration of the nature of law.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Law and Criminology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, United Kingdom

    Peter Langford, John McGarry

  • Lancaster University Law School, Lancaster, United Kingdom

    Ian Bryan

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