The Purity Thesis |
| |
| Authors: | Stanley L Paulson |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Hermann Kantorowicz‐Institut für juristische Grundlagenforschung, Juristisches Seminar, Christian‐Albrechts‐Universit?t zu Kiel, Kiel, GermanyFor welcome suggestions and criticism I wish to thank Carsten B?cker, Andreas Funke, J?rg Kammerhofer, Hubert Rottleuthner, Jan Sieckmann, and Kenneth Winston. Colleagues in Genoa also offered welcome suggestions and criticism on an earlier draft of some of this material;2. I am grateful to Pierluigi Chiassoni, Riccardo Guastini, Giovanni Battista Ratti, and Maria Cristina Redondo. Warm thanks, too, to Bonnie Litschewski Paulson, who gave me discerning and sanguine advice. And, as always, I wish to thank Robert Alexy for his gracious hospitality and many good conversations. |
| |
| Abstract: | Hans Kelsen’s purity thesis is the basic methodological principle of the Pure Theory of Law. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that virtually everything that is peculiar to Kelsen’s legal theory stems from the purity thesis. This includes Kelsen’s normativism or non‐naturalism and his polemic against various dualisms in legal science. I set out Kelsen’s position on these issues after looking at the nomenclature of purity in his writings as well as the philosophical and contextual sources of purity as he understands them. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
