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Hans Kelsen

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Hans Kelsen

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Austrian lawyer (1881–1973)

OverviewAI-generated

Hans Kelsen (1881–1973) was a lawyer, judge, philosopher, and university teacher who worked in the fields of law, legal theory, constitutional law, and international law. Born in Prague, he died in Berkeley. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Institut de Droit International, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Kelsen was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

He was employed by the University of Vienna, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Cologne, and the University of Geneva. His education included studies at the University of Vienna, Harvard University, Heidelberg University, and the Akademisches Gymnasium. Kelsen wrote in German and was influenced by Hans Vaihinger. His notable works include *The Law of the United Nations*, *General Theory of Law and State*, *What Is Justice?*, *Pure Theory of Law*, and *Staat Als Integration*.

Synthesized by Vinony from 32 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Open Library, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works
39

Top works

  • The Law of the United Nations
  • General Theory of Law and State
  • What Is Justice?
  • Pure Theory of Law
  • Staat Als Integration

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Group

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
3
Total plays
5

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Hans+Kelsen">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Hans Kelsen

Quotes

  • Law is an order of human behavior. An “order” is a system of rules. Law is not, as it is sometimes said, a rule. It is a set of rules having the kind of unity we understand by a system. It is impossible to grasp the nature of law if we limit our attention to the single isolated rule.
  • It is called a “pure” theory of law, because it only describes the law and attempts to eliminate from the object of this description everything that is not strictly law: Its aim is to free the science of law from alien elements. This is the methodological basis of the theory.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
( 1881-10-11 ) October 11, 1881, Prague , Austria-Hungary
Died
April 19, 1973 (1973-04-19) (aged 91), Berkeley, California , U.S.
Education
University of Vienna ( Dr. iur. , 1906; habilitation , 1911)
Thesis
Hauptprobleme der Staatsrechtslehre entwickelt aus der Lehre vom Rechtssätze (1911)
Era
20th-century philosophy
Region
Western philosophy
School
Legal positivism
Institutions
University of Vienna , University of Cologne , Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies , University of California, Berkeley
Doctoral students
Eric Voegelin , Alfred Schütz
Main interests
Public law , International law , Philosophy of law
Notable ideas
Pure theory of law , Basic norm , Constitutional court

via Wikipedia infobox

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Hans Kelsen (/ˈkɛlsən/; German: [ˈhans ˈkɛlzən]; October 11, 1881 – April 19, 1973) was an Austrian and later American jurist, legal philosopher and political philosopher. He is known principally for his theory of law, which he named the "pure theory of law (Reine Rechtslehre)", and for his writings on international law and theory of democracy.

The "pure theory" provides general foundations for value-independent description of law. As an expert in constitutional law, Kelsen was the principal architect of the 1920 Austrian Constitution, which, with amendments, remains in force.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Hans Kelsen” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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