Skip to content

General Theory of Law and State

Best in textbook rentals since 2012!

ISBN-10: 1412804949

ISBN-13: 9781412804943

Edition: 2005

Authors: Hans Kelsen, A. Javier Trevino

List price: $56.95
Blue ribbon 30 day, 100% satisfaction guarantee!
what's this?
Rush Rewards U
Members Receive:
Carrot Coin icon
XP icon
You have reached 400 XP and carrot coins. That is the daily max!

Widely regarded as the most important legal theorist of the twentieth century, Hans Kelsen is best known for his formulation of the "pure theory of law"--within which the study of international law was his special field of work. The present volume, General Theory of Law and State, first published in 1945, allowed Kelsen to adjust his pure theory of law to American circumstances after World War II. It also afforded him the opportunity to present to English-speaking readers his latest ideas on the supremacy of international law. The volume is divided into two parts: the first devoted to law, the second to the state. Together these topics constitute the most systematic and comprehensive…    
Customers also bought

Book details

List price: $56.95
Copyright year: 2005
Publisher: Routledge
Publication date: 1/10/2005
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 556
Size: 6.54" wide x 9.06" long x 1.42" tall
Weight: 1.848
Language: English

Hans Kelsen had a distinguished career at a variety of European universities, and in government services, at Vienna, Cologne, the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes in Paris, and then in Prague. He served as legal adviser to the United Nations War Crimes Commission in Washington, D.C.

Transaction Introduction
Preface
The Law
Nomostatics
The Concept of Law
Law and Justice
The Criterion of Law (Law as a Specific Social Technique)
Validity and Efficacy
The Legal Norm
The Sanction
The Delict
"Mala in se" and "Mala prohibita"
The Delict as a Condition of the Sanction
The Delict as Behavior of the Individual against whom the Sanction is Directed
Identification of the Delinquent with the Members of his Group
Delict of Juristic Persons
The Legal Duty
Duty and Norm
The Duty and the "Ought"
The Secondary Norm
Obeying and Applying the Legal Norm
Austin's Distinction between Primary and Secondary Duties
The Legal Responsibility
Culpability and Absolute Liability
Duty and Responsibility; Individual and Collective Responsibility
Austin's Concept of Duty
The Legal Right
Right and Duty
Permission
The Legal Right in a Narrow Sense
The Right as a Specific Legal Technique
Absolute and Relative Rights
The Right as Participation in the Creation of Law
Civil and Political Rights
Competence (Legal Capacity)
Imputation (Imputability)
The Legal Person
Substance and Quality
The Physical Person
The Juristic Person
Nomodynamics
The Legal Order
The Unity of a Normative Order
The Law as a Dynamic System of Norms
The Basic Norm of a Legal Order
The Static and the Dynamic Concept of Law
The Hierarchy of the Norms
The Superior and the Inferior Norm
The Different Stages of the Legal Order
The Legal Transaction (Juristic Act)
Nature of Constitutional Law
Relationship between the Judicial Act and the Pre-existent Norm Applied by the Judicial Act
Gaps (Lacunae) of Law
General Norms created by Judicial Acts
Conflicts between Norms of Different Stages
Normative and Sociological Jurisprudence
Sociological Jurisprudence not the only Science of Law
Normative Jurisprudence as Empirical and Descriptive Science of Law
The Prediction of the Legal Function
The Specific Meaning of a Juristic Statement
No Prediction of the Legislative Function
The Law not a system of Doctrines (Theorems)
The Difference between the Statements of a Normative and of a Sociological Jurisprudence
Sociological Elements in Austin's Analytical Jurisprudence
Predictability of the Legal Function and Efficacy of the Legal Order
Irrelevancy of Individual Circumstances
Sociology of Law and Sociology of Justice
Sociological Jurisprudence presupposes the Normative Concept of Law
The Object of the Sociology of Law: Behavior determined by the Legal Order
The State
The Law and the State
The State as a Real (Sociological) or Juristic Entity
The Organs of the State
The State as Subject of Duties and Rights
Private and Public Law
The Elements of the State
The Territory of the State
Time as an Element of the State
The People of the State
The Competence of the State as the Material Sphere of Validity of the National Legal Order
Conflict of Laws
The so-called Fundamental Rights and Duties of the States
The Power of the State
The Separation of Powers
The Concept of "Separation of Powers"
Separation of the Legislative from the Executive Power
Not Separation but Distribution of Powers
Separation of the Judicial from the Executive (Administrative) Power
Coercive Acts of the Administrative Organs
Direct and Indirect Administration
Legal Control of Administration by Ordinary or by Administrative Courts
Control of Legislation by Courts
The Historical Role of the "Separation of Powers"
Separation of Powers and Democracy
Forms of Government: Democracy and Autocracy
Classification of Constitutions
Democracy
Autocracy
Forms of Organization: Centralization and Decentralization
Centralization and Decentralization as Legal Concepts
The Static Concept of Centralization and Decentralization
The Dynamic Concept of Centralization and Decentralization
Federal State and Confederacy of States
The international legal community
National and International Law
The Legal Character of International Law
International Law and State
The Unity of National and International Law (Monism and Pluralism)
Natural Law Doctrine and Legal Positivism
The Idea of Natural Law and the Essence of Positive Law
Social Theory and the Problem of Justice
The Principle of Validity in Natural and Positive Law; the Factor of Coercion; Law and State
The "Ought": Absolute and Relative Validity
The Basic Norm of Positive Law
The Immutability of Natural Law
The Limitation of the Natural-Law Idea
Natural and Positive Law as Systems of Norms
The Unity of Systems of Norms
The Static Principle of Natural Law and the Dynamic Principle of Positive Law
The Limitation of Positivism
Positive Law as a Meaningful Order
The Subjective and Objective Meaning of Legal Material
The Methodological Importance of the Basic Norm in Positive Law
The Relation of Natural to Positive Law. The Political Significance of Natural-Law Theory
The Exclusive Validity of a System of Norms: the Logical Principle of Contradiction in the Sphere of Normative Validity
The Norm as an "Ought" and as a Psychological Fact: Collision of Duties and Contradiction of Norms
Law and Morals: the Postulate of the Unity of System
The Logical Impossibility of the Coexistence of Positive and Natural Law
The Impossibility of a Relationship of Delegation between Natural and Positive Law
Positive Law as a Mere Fact in its Relation to Natural Law as a Norm
The Relation of Natural to Positive Law in the Historical Natural-Law Doctrine
Natural Law as a Justification of Positive Law
The Supposedly Revolutionary Character of Natural-Law Doctrine
The Epistemological (Metaphysical) and Psychological Foundations
The Metaphysical Dualism
The Scientific-Critical Philosophy
List of Publications
Index