KELSEN, Hans

Austrian-American legal theorist who stressed the importance of law as scientifically normative rather than deriving from or based on practice. Although the findings of social science or the values arising from religious beliefs have some relevance, law itself being a community-wide willed principle generates its own sense of ‘ought’.

Life

• A brief introduction to Kelsen's life and work

• A Kelsen biography and bibliography

• Kelsen biographies and analyses of his work from Encyclopedia.com

Writings

• Society and Nature