Abstract
This chapter introduces readers to the chapters to follow by introducing them to the major theoretical themes of Kelsen’s work. After a quick review of Kelsen’s biography and the reception of his work in United States, the chapter moves on to a discussion of significant aspects of: the pure theory of law; Kelsen’s doctrine of the unity of law and international legal monism; and Kelsen’s views on justice and democracy. The chapter concludes with a brief review of Kelsen’s most recent book, Secular Religion.
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Notes
- 1.
Volume 33 of the Schriftenreihe des Hans Kelsen-Instituts is the third volume in the series focusing on Kelsen’s influence abroad. Earlier volumes on the subject appeared in 1978 (Volume 2) and 1983 (Volume 8). Volumes 12 (1988) and 22 (2001) also include contributions addressing the international reception of Kelsen’s pure theory of law .
- 2.
Kelsen’s conversions seem not to have been motivated by religious belief; he seems to have been agnostic. The second conversion came at the time of his marriage to Margarete Bondi, who converted from Judaism to Protestantism. Austrian law did not permit intermarriage, and as Anna Staudacher’s research indicates, the Catholic conversion ritual included a stark denunciation of Judaism, which may explain why most Jews preferred to convert to Protestantism.
- 3.
The Supremacy Clause provides that all “Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be supreme Law of the Land.”
- 4.
While the majority opinion in Medellín is not a model of clarity on this point, the majority position seems to be that a treaty is self-executing and thus effective as domestic law only if the treaty itself, the legislative history underlying the Senate’s “advice and consent” to the treaty, or the instrument of ratification expressly indicates a desire or understanding that the treaty was to be self-executing.
- 5.
According the majority opinion in Sosa, rules of customary international law can give rise to claims under the Alien Tort Statute only if the rules express norms of customary law as universally recognized today as were the prohibition on piracy, the right of safe passage and protections for ambassadors at the time Congress adopted the Alien Tort Statute in 1789. Very few rules of customary international law can claim such universal acceptance. Norms of customary international law rarely come up in U.S. litigation apart from litigation relating to the Alien Tort Statute.
- 6.
I am grateful to Jörg Kammerhofer for his skepticism regarding my reading of Kelsen’s treatise on the United Nations. Kammerhofer points out that the purpose of treatises in the European tradition to which Kelsen was contributing is to pinpoint all ambiguities in the law so that attorneys and judges can know what they are dealing with. This insight leads me to question my assumption that Kelsen’s disappointment with the substance of the Charter informed his view of the weaknesses in its drafting. In my own defense, my reading was influenced in part by Kelsen’s preface to his treatise, in which he stated that his ultimate goal was to improve the law governing the United Nations.
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Telman, D.A.J. (2016). Introduction: Hans Kelsen for Americans. In: Telman, D. (eds) Hans Kelsen in America - Selective Affinities and the Mysteries of Academic Influence. Law and Philosophy Library, vol 116. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33130-0_1
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