General Theory of Norms

526 Pages·1991·7.48 MB·English

by  Hans Kelsen

GENERAL THEORY OF NORMS

General Theory of Norms
HANS KELSEN
Translatedby
Michael Hartney
CLARENDONPRESS - OXFORD
1991
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BritisbLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Kelsen,Hans1881—1973
Generaltbeoryofnorms.
I.Law. Tbeories
I. TitleII.[AllgemeineTbeoriederNormen.Englisb]
340.]
ISBN0—19—825217—X
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Kelsen,Hans, 1881—1973.
[AllgemeineTbeoriederNormen.Englisb]
Generaltbeoryofnorms/HansKelsen;translatedbyMicbaelHartney.
Includesbibliograpbicalreferencesandindex.
I.Law—Pbilosopby. 2.Law—Interpretationandconstruction.
3.Lawandetbics. 4.jurisprudence. I. Title.
K230.K44A44I3 I991 340’.I—dc20
ISBN0—19—825217—X
TypesetbyPentacorPLC,Higb Wycombe,Bucks
PrintedinGreatBritainby
BiddlesLtd
GuildfordGKing’sLynn
Contents
Introduction by Mic/melHartney ix
Translator’sNote liv
Forewordto the OriginalGerman Edition lviii
. Norms
. Norms andMeans—End Relations: Ought and Must—
Teleological (Causal) andNormativeNecessity—Norms and
Ends
. Kant’s Hypothetical Imperatives—Imperatives of‘Skill’—‘
Hypothetical and CategoricalImperatives 13
. No LogicalRelation betweenWillingthe End andWillingthe
Means 16
. The GeneralNorms ofPositiveMoralityandPositive Laware
always Hypothetical 19
. Natural Laws and Social (Moral andLegal) Laws 22
. Causality andImputation 24
. Norm-positingActs: Content andDescription—Norms:
Validity and Content 26
. Analysis ofthe ActofWill, ofits Meaning and ofits
Expression 31
10. Acts ofCommanding, Commands, and Observance of
Commands 37
11. Recognition and Observance ofNorms 42
12. TheValidity ofaNorm andits Observance orViolation 46
13. The Objectivity oftheValidity ofGeneralNorms and of
IndividualNorms 50
vi Contents
14. The Immediate andMediateAddressees ofGeneralNorms of
Lawand ofMorality 52
15. Primary andSecondary LegalNorms —Subjective and
Objective Observance andViolation ofNorms 56
16. TheModes ofIs and OughtandtheModally Indifferent
Substrate 58
17. TheDenialoftheDualityofIs and Ought 63
18. Is and Oughtin Kant’s Philosophy 79
19. The PrincipleofAutonomy—Conscience as MoralAuthority 83
20. Is andOughtinHume’s Philosophy 86
21. Poincaré’s Conception oftheRelationbetweenScience and
Morality 87
22. The ObjectofNorms: HumanBehaviour 89
23. TheHumanBehaviourIncludedin aNorm: External or
Internal, ACtionorOmission, butalways SocialBehaviour 92
24. The Condition andEffectofHumanBehaviour as the Content
ofNorms '94
25. The Functions ofNorms: Commanding, Permitting,
Empowering, Derogating 96
26. Empowering: ConferringthePowerto PositandApply
Norms \ 102
27. Derogation: TheRepeal oftheValidity ofaNorm by another
Norm 106
28. LegalNorms andLegalPrinciples: Esser’sTransformation
Theory 115
29. Conflicts ofNorms 123
30. Lawas aStandard ofValue and Lawas ‘Teaching’—The
Significance oftheJudge’s FindingofFact 128
Contents vii
31. Positive and Negative Regulation ofHuman Behaviour by
Law—The Closure ofthe Legal Order: Gaps in the
Law 131
32. Rights, Duties, andSanctions 133
33. The Concept ofEntitlement: theVarious Significations ofthis
Word—Rights 136
34. Effectiveness, Validity, Positivity 138
35. Primary and SecondaryNorms —The Difference between
Law andMorality 142
36. The Spatio-temporalValidity ofNorms: Territorial and
Temporal Spheres ofValidity 144
37. The Personal and Material Spheres ofValidity 147
38. The Expression ofthe Norm-positingAct—Statements about
Norms 149
39. Norms Which are notthe Meaning ofActs ofWill? Mally’s
Theory 156
40. The Norms ofMorality are not Commands? Manfred Moritz’s
Theory: ‘Genuine’ and ‘Inauthentic’ Commands and
Compliance 158
41. Norm and Statementas Different Significations ofa Sentence 163
42. Thinking andWilling: TheirInter-relationship 166
43. Neitherthe StatementnortheNorm ‘Wants’ Anything 168
44. TheTruth ofa Statement andtheValidity ofaNorm 170
45. TheBeing-True ofa Statement andthe Being-Goodof
Behaviour 175
46. TheVerifiability oftheTruth ofa Statement—TheNon-
verifiability oftheValidity ofaNorm 180
47. The Question ‘What OughtI to Do?’ 182
viii Contents
48. Statements abouttheValidity ofaNorm andStatements about
FaCtualBehaviourwhichAgrees With or Contradicts the
Norm 184
49. Statements aboutaNorm and Quoting aNorm 187
50. TheProblem oftheApplicabilityofLogicalPrinciples to
Norms 189
51. Jargensen’sTheory ofthe ‘IndicativeFactor’ Immanentin an
Imperative ‘194
52. Husserl’sTheoryofthe ‘Theoretical Content’ ofaNorm 199
53. Sigwart’s Theory oftheAssertion Containedin an Imperative 202
54. Dubislav’sTheory ofthe ‘Recasting’ ofRequirement-
sentences into Assertion-sentences 203
55. HofstadterandMcKinsey’s Theory oftheAnalogy between
theSatisfaction ofanImperative andtheTruth ofaSentence;
AlfRoss’s TheoryoftheParallelbetweentheObservance-
value ofan Imperative andtheTruth-value ofa Statement 206
56. Gerhard Frey’sTheory 208
57. TheApplicabilityofthePrinciple ofContradictiontoNorms 211
58. TheApplicationoftheRule ofInferencetoNorms 226
59. LogicalProblems about GroundingtheValidityofNorms 252
60. The Logical Structure ofaHypotheticalNorm—The
RelationofCondition and Consequence 266
61. IsThere aSpecifically ‘Juristic’ Logic? 268
Endnotes 272
References 430
Appendix: Bibliography ofKelsen’sPublicationsin English 440
IndexofAntlyors 455
IndexofSnlajects 459
Introduction: The Final Form of
The Pare Theory ofLaw
byMichael Hartney
When I-Ians Kelsen published the ‘new, completely revised and
expanded’ edition of Reine Reclytsleljre in 1960 at the age of 78, the
scholarly world might have expected it to be his swan song. But it was
not to be the case. Kelsen kept writing and publishing throughout the
1960s. Some of these articles were replies to criticisms ofhis views1 and
others were restatements and summaries of the Pure Theory of Law.2
But more importantly, at the time of the publication of the second
edition ofReineReclatslelyre, he had recently begun a correspondence on
norms and logic with Ulrich Klug, the author ofjnristisclje Logi/e.3 The
results of Kelsen’s thoughts on the logic of norms soon began to appear
as articles during the 1960s. In ‘Derogation’ and ‘Recht und Logik’
(English translation: ‘Law and Logic’),4 he gave up the position he had
long held concerning the applicability of logic to norms. This work on
normativelogicledhimto expandhis PureTheory ofLawinto a‘general
theory of norms’. When he died in 1973 at the age of 91, he left a huge
manuscript containing the results of his work during the preceding
decade. This was published in 1979 asAllgemeine Theorie derNormen.5
Anditis this workwhichnow appears inEnglish translation.
There is a tendency to think of Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law as an
unchanging doctrine. Butwhen we recall that his scholarly career lasted
close to seventy years,6 and that almost forty years elapsed between the
first complete exposition ofthe PureTheory ofLaw (1934) and Kelsen’s
death, it appears highly unlikely that the Pure Theory should have
remained'static. While there are typically Kelsenian doctrines which
remainedunchanged for half a century, recent study has shown that on
1 TheonlyoneoftheseinEnglishis‘ProfessorStoneandthePureTheoryofLaw’(1965)17
StanfordLawReview1128—57.
2 e.g. inEnglish, ‘WhatisthePureTheoryofLaw?’ (1960)34 TulaneLawReview269—76,
and‘OnthePureTheoryofLaw’(1966)1IsraelLawReview1—7.
3 This correspondence has been published as Rec/atsnormen and Logisc/ae Analyse: Ein
Briefwec/asel,1959—1965(Vienna:Deuticke, 1981).
4 Bothofthesearticlesareincludedinthe 1973 collectionofKelsenpapers, Essaysin Legal
andMoralPhilosophy(DordrechtandBoston:Reidel);henceforth‘ELMP’.
5 (Vienna:Manz);henceforth‘ATN’.
6 Hisfirstworkwaspublishedin 1905. Fordetailsofhislifeandcareer, seeRudolfMétall,
HansKelsen:LebenandWerk(Vienna:Deuticke, 1969).