Summary Of Kelsen's Pure Theory Of Law

Is Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law pure? In his famous article “On the Pure Theory of Law,” Hans Kelsen discusses his pure theory of law. He argues that the only pure form of law theory is the theory of positive law, which he calls “legal positivism”. Kelsen presents legal positivism to be the only consistent form of jurisprudence because this theory considers the law in its positive form and it separates law from any other social disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, politics and ethics. Kelsen defines law as a type of norm. Therefore, it is subject to a normative order, which makes the “the specific meaning of an act of will directed at a definite human behavior”. Afterwards, Kelsen prescribes two conditions, which if fulfilled by any legal norm, it “is” a proper positive norm. The first condition is that: this norm should be “posited” to be created by an act of a human being, subsequently, any norm created by a god, by nature or by a superhuman being is not “positive” law. The second condition is: the legal norm must be effective which means that people should obey the legal norm and if not obeyed at least applied to them. Obeyed means that any act contradicts with this norm is a “condition of sanction,” while applied means that whenever that condition of sanction is fulfilled it should be ordered and executed by the court or by executive authority.
Kelsen afterwards describes the norm of any legal system as a paramedical structure, in this structure, Kelsen arranges