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2017 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

3. Natural Law and the Nature of Law: Kelsen’s Paradox

verfasst von : Pierre-Yves Quiviger

Erschienen in: Kelsenian Legal Science and the Nature of Law

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Is it possible to articulate a genuine pure theory of law without it ceasing to be a positivist theory of law? The project of a pure theory of law can be held to presuppose a “nature of law” whose criteria lead to transcendence with respect to positive law, even though it is not its purpose. The difficulty facing the pure theory of law is: to be absolutely dependent on its object, in a manner analogous to the physico-chemical sciences, and, as a result, to be a necessarily “impure” theory. For, how is the pure theory of law then to conceive and respond to that which is not, or no longer, legal in the system of positive law? If the methodological purity of the theory is to be retained, and, thus, that there is a criterion, furnished by the pure theory of law, to distinguish ‘real’ legal norms from ‘false’ ones, is the capacity to utilize the criterion not immediately dissolved by the underlying empiricism of its dependence upon its object?

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Vorheriges Kapitel Kelsen and the Problems of the Social Fact Thesis

Nächstes Kapitel Natural Law Systematics: Is There a ‘Grundnorm’ in Natural Law?

In a beautiful article, Paul Amselek (Amselek 1981) had ventured this bold conclusion.

I am concentrating solely upon Kelsenian legal positivism and my position presumes that it is underlain by hypothetical ‘laws’ constantly subject to empirical verification following (Jabloner and Stadler 2001) and, in particular, the chapters by (Dreier 2001; Morscher 2001 and Thaler 2001). This interpretation presents an understanding of Kelsen’s legal science – its scientificity – which is at variance with Kelsen’s own self-interpretation of his project – see the Letter to Renato Treves of 1933 (Kelsen 1967) – and the academic commentary which has sought to argue that, the Neo-Kantian philosophy of Hermann Cohen is the foundation for its scientificity. See, in particular, (Edel 1997; Holzhey 1986; Holzhey 1984).

This is clearly expressed in Kelsen’s later ‘Letter to Renato Treves’ of 1933 (Kelsen 1967). Here, one should also indicate that the Neo-Kantianism of Cohen’s project which Kelsen retains is one which has reconstructed the coherence of Kant’s philosophy by actively detaching it from its surrounding philosophical context. This becomes evident if one compares Cohen’s commentaries on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (Cohen 1871/1885; Cohen 1907) with the later historical reconstruction of the unity of Kant’s project undertaken in the later twentieth century in the work of Giorgio Tonelli (see, for example, Tonelli 1974; Tonelli 1975 and Tonelli 1994).

See, from a different perspective, (Leiter 2007).

It is also pertinent to note, beyond this potential affinity with Gödel, the influence of the Neo-Kantian philosophers, Vaihinger and Cassirer, whose respective theory of fictions, in particular juridical fictions, and critique of the notion of substance are explicitly acknowledged by Kelsen (see Kelsen, 1919 and Kelsen, 1967). On Cassirer’s critique of substance, (see Rudolf 1994); and, for Cassirer’s attempt to combine the developments in modern logic with the Neo-Kantianism of Marburg, (see Heis 2010, and Richardson 2006).

On the wider question of Hobbes and Kelsen, (see Gentile 1982).

See, from a different perspective, Paulson (2012) and Paulson (1998).

See Quiviger 2009 for the more detailed critique of the model of translation and the presentation of a more complex analytical perspective which accords a distinct position to three stages of conception, adoption and effectiveness of law.

See Jabloner and Stadler 2001. In particular, the essays by Dreier (2001), Morscher (2001) and Thaler (2001). In addition, there is the question of the pertinence of the approach of Hermann Cohen, prefigured in Das Prinzip der Infinitesimal-Methode and seine Geschichte: Ein Kapitel zur Grundlegung der Erkenntniskritik 1883, and further developed in the first part of his philosophical system, Logik der reinen Erkenntnis, 1902, in which the relation to the physico-chemical sciences is that which accepts the ‘fact’ of the physio-chemical sciences and seeks to lay the ground for their comprehension in an approach which attempts to prevent its collapse into mere empiricism and remains distinct from the later, more sophisticated approach of the Vienna Circle. The pertinence of this approach to an understanding of the transcendental logic of Kelsen’s Pure Theory is developed by Edel (1997, 1998).

Amselek, P. 1981. L’héritage jusnaturaliste du positivisme juridique. Filosofia del Derecho y Problemas de Filosofia Social X: 55–67.

Cohen, H. 1871/1885. Kants Theorie der Erfahrung. Berlin: Dümmler.

———. 1907. Kommentar zu Immanuel Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Leipzig: Meiner.

Dreier, H. 2001. Rechtsdeutung zwischen Normativierung der Natur und Naturalisierung des Normativen am Beispiel von Kelsens Rechtsbegriff. In Logischer Empirismus und Reine Rechtslehre. Beziehungen zwischen dem Wiener Kreis und der Hans Kelsen-Schule, edited by C. Jabloner and F. Stadler, 291–305. Vienna: Springer.

Edel, G. 1997. Zum Problem der Recthsgeltung. Kelsens Lehre von der Grundnorm und das Hypothesis-Theorem Cohens. In Grenzen der Kritischen Vernuft. Helmut Holzhey zum 60. Geburtstag, edited by P.A. Schmid and S. Zurbuchen, 178–194. Basel: Schwabe.

———. 1998. The Hypothesis of the Basic Norm: Hans Kelsen and Hermann Cohen. In Normativity and Norms: Critical Perspectives on Kelsenian Themes, edited by S.L. Paulson and B.L. Paulson, 195–219. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gentile, F. 1982. Hobbes et Kelsen: Eléments pour une lecture croisée. Revue européenne des sci- ences sociales 61: 378–391.

Heis, J. 2010. ‘Critical philosophy begins at the very point where logistic leaves off’: Cassirer’s Response to Frege and Russell. Perspectives on Science 18 (4): 383–408.CrossRef

Hobbes, T. 1651. Leviathan (Latin edition, Amstelodami: Joannen Blaeu, 1670).

Holzhey, H. 1984. Die Transformation neukantianischer Theoreme in die Reine Rechtslehre Kelsens. In Hermeneutik und Strukturtheorie des Rechts, edited by M.W. Fischer, E. Mock, and H. Schreiner, 99–110. Wiesbaden: Steiner.

———. 1986. Kelsens Rechts- und Staatslehre in ihrem Verhältnis zum Neukantianismus. In Untersuchungen zur Reinen Rechtslehre. Ergebnisse eines Wiener Rechtstheoretischen Seminars 1985/86, edited by S.L. Paulson and R. Walter, 167–192. Vienna: Manz.

Jabloner, C., and F. Stadler, eds. 2001. Logischer Empirismus und Reine Rechtslehre. Beziehungen zwischen dem Wiener Kreis und der Hans Kelsen-Schule. Vienna: Springer.

Kelsen, Hans. 1919. Zur Theorie der juristischen Fiktionen. Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Vaihingers Philosophie des Als Ob. Annalen der Philosophie und philosophischen Kritik 1 (1): 630–658.

Kelsen, H. 1948. The Doctrine of Natural Law Before the Tribunal of Science. The Western Political Quarterly 2 (4): 481–513.

Kelsen, Hans. 1949a. Natural Law Doctrine and Legal Positivism. Trans. W.H. Kraus. In General Theory of Law and State, edited by H. Kelsen, 392–446. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press. (German original 1928).

———. 1949b. General Theory of Law and State. Trans. A. Wedberg, Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Kelsen, H. 1967. The Pure Theory of Law, translation from the second German edition by Max Knight. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

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Paulson, Stanley L. 1998. Two Problems in Hans Kelsen’s Legal Philosophy. In Pragmatism, Reason & Norms: A Realistic Assessment, edited by K.R. Westphal, 219–242. New York: Fordham University Press.

———. 2012. A ‘Justified Normativity’ Thesis in Hans Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law? Rejoinders to Robert Alexy and Joseph Raz. In Institutionalized Reason. The Jurisprudence of Robert Alexy, edited by M. Klatt, 61–111. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef

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Richardson, A. 2006. The ‘Fact of Science’ and Critique of Knowledge: Exact Science as Problem and Resource in Marburg Neo-Kantianism. In The Kantian Legacy in Nineteenth-century Science, edited by M. Friedman and A. Nordmann, 211–226. Cambridge, M.A.: MIT Press.

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———. 1975. The Problem of the Classification of the Sciences in Kant’s Time. Rivista Critica di Storia della Filosofia 30: 243–294.

———. 1994. Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason Within the Tradition of Modern Logic. A Commentary on Its History, edited by D. H. Chandler. Hildesheim: Georg Olms.

Titel: Natural Law and the Nature of Law: Kelsen’s Paradox
verfasst von: Pierre-Yves Quiviger
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Kelsenian Legal Science and the Nature of Law
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51816-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-51817-6

Copyright-Jahr: 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51817-6_3