Kammerhofer, Jörg --- "Hans Kelsen’s Place in International Legal Theory" [2011] ELECD 575; in Orakhelashvili, Alexander (ed), "Research Handbook on the Theory and History of International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Theory and History of International Law

Editor(s): Orakhelashvili, Alexander

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848443549

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Hans Kelsen’s Place in International Legal Theory

Author(s): Kammerhofer, Jörg

Number of pages: 25

Extract:

6 Hans Kelsen's place in international legal theory
Jörg Kammerhofer


6.1 THE PURE THEORY OF LAW AUJOURD'HUI

Hans Kelsen and the Pure Theory of Law (Reine Rechtslehre) he founded has recently
been subject to a revival, even in Anglo-Saxon countries traditionally critical of that
approach. Legal scholars seemingly tired of their discipline being colonised by other areas
of knowledge such as sociology, ethics or economics now once again seek to focus on
the proper core of legal scholarship ­ to find out what the law itself says. In international
law, this revival is much less marked,1 perhaps because international legal scholarship is
a discipline even more steeped in pragmatism than many domestic traditions.
This chapter is an attempt to carry the spirit of the Kelsen revival to the international
realm. It seeks to apply the Pure Theory of Law to some of the current problems of
international law and thus to endow that theory with a new usefulness that Kelsen is not
usually accorded by current international legal scholarship. Another goal of this chapter
is to get away from a gut-reaction against Kelsen and to avoid the stigma that is associ-
ated with his name in legal theory. This can be achieved by re-engaging with the Pure
Theory without placing undue emphasis on polemic defence or attack and by thoroughly
`modernising' the topics discussed. This chapter aims to convince on the merits in order
to get colleagues to engage with the Pure Theory ...