| Special Workshop Title: | Law and Objectivity - Legal Positivism, Critical Theory and the New Wave of Natural Law |
| Author: | Stanley L. Paulson |
| Paper Title: | Hans Kelsen’s Radical Objectification Programs |
| Abstract: | In Kelsen’s writings there arises the contrast between the ‘objective sense’ attached to a legal act and the ‘subjective sense’ attached to a non-legal act. In fact, this distinction, expressed by Kelsen in a variety of ways, reaches well beyond the role it plays in the qualification of acts. As I read him, Kelsen is engaged in a program of objectification. Indeed, there are two distinguishable objectification programs in Kelsen's writings, both of them radical, both far reaching. In the first, objectification as the task of legal science, Kelsen is attempting to render objective all of the concepts of the law. Here Kelsen’s goal is to arrive at the ‘ideal linguistic form’, as he puts it, of the legal norm. In the second, objectification as anti-naturalism, Kelsen’s effort is a reflection of other anti-naturalistic programs pursued by a variety of thinkers in philosophy. Here Kelsen’s argument is neo-Kantian in nature. I sketch both programs and say something about their implications. |
This page was last updated on: 2003-06-04.