Hans Kelsen Werke

Volume 12 of the HKW contains 'Allgemeine Staatslehre', the groundbreaking work that was to help set in motion the Weimar Richtungs- und Methodenstreit of the 1920s. Terminologically drawing on the tradition culminating in Georg Jellinek's classic work, Kelsen deprives the General Theory of the State of its methodological basis. In fact, his 'Allgemeine Staatslehre', written at the zenith of his Viennese years, marks the first comprehensive exposition of the Pure Theory of Law. In other words, this was the 'zero edition' of the 'Reine Rechtslehre', which then already bore all the typical characteristics of the first edition published in 1934, such as the juxtaposition of the (nomo)static and (nomo)dynamic view, the unity of state and legal order, the deconstruction of the traditional dichotomy of public and private law as well as the concept of the basic norm (Grundnorm).

(1881-1973): 1919-30 university professor in Vienna; 1919-1930 constitutional judge; 1930-33 professor in Cologne; 1933-40 professor in Geneva; 1936-38 professor in Prague; 1945-52 professor in Berkeley.