Hans Kelsen in America - Selective Affinities and the Mysteries of Academic Influence

This volume explores the reasons for Hans Kelsen’s lack of influence in the United States and proposes ways in which Kelsen’s approach to law, philosophy, and political, democratic, and international relations theory could be relevant to current debates within the U.S. academy in those areas. Along the way, the volume examines Kelsen’s relationship and often hidden influences on other members of the mid-century Central European émigré community whose work helped shape twentieth-century social science in the United States. The book includes major contributions to the history of ideas and to the sociology of the professions in the U.S. academy in the twentieth century. Each section of the volume explores a different aspect of the puzzle of the neglect of Kelsen’s work in various disciplinary and national settings. Part I provides reconstructions of Kelsen’s legal theory and defends that theory against negative assessments in Anglo-American jurisprudence. Part II focuses both on Kelsen’s theoretical views on international law and his practical involvement in the post-war development of international criminal law. Part III addresses Kelsen’s theories of democracy and justice while placing him in dialogue with other major twentieth-century thinkers, including two fellow émigré scholars, Leo Strauss and Albert Ehrenzweig. Part IV explores Kelsen’s intellectual legacies through European and American perspectives on the interaction of Kelsen’s theoretical approach to law and national legal traditions in the United States and Germany. Each contribution features a particular applications of Kelsen’s approach to doctrinal and interpretive issues currently of interest in the legal academy. The volume concludes with two chapters on the nature of Kelsen’s legal theory as an instance of modernism. "This volume explores the reasons for Hans Kelsen's lack of influence in the United States and proposes ways in which Kelsen's approach to law, philosophy, and political, democratic, and international relations theory could be relevant to current debates within the U.S. academy in those areas. Along the way, the volume examines Kelsen's relationship and often hidden influences on other members of the mid-century Central European émigré community whose work helped shape twentieth century social science in the United States. The book includes major contributions to the history of ideas and to the sociology of the professions in the U.S. academy in the twentieth century. Each section of the volume explores a different aspect of the puzzle of the neglect of Kelsen's work in various disciplinary and national settings. Part I provides reconstructions of Kelsen's legal theory and defends that theory against negative assessments in Anglo American jurisprudence. Part II focuses both on Kelsen's theoretical views on international law and his practical involvement in the post war development of international criminal law. Part III addresses Kelsen's theories of democracy and justice while placing him in dialogue with other major twentieth century thinkers, including two fellow émigré scholars, Leo Strauss and Albert Ehrenzweig. Part IV explores Kelsen's intellectual legacies through European and American perspectives on the interaction of Kelsen's theoretical approach to law and national legal traditions in the United States and Germany. Each contribution features a particular application of Kelsen's approach to doctrinal and interpretive issues currently of interest in the legal academy. The volume concludes with two chapters on the nature of Kelsen's legal theory as an instance of modernism"--Back cover This volume explores the reasons for Hans Kelsen's lack of influence in the United States and proposes ways in which Kelsen's approach to law, philosophy, and political, democratic, and international relations theory could be relevant to current debates within the U.S. academy in those areas. Along the way, the volume examines Kelsen's relationship and often hidden influences on other members of the mid-century Central European émigré community whose work helped shape twentieth-century social science in the United States. The book includes major contributions to the history of ideas and to the sociology of the professions in the U.S. academy in the twentieth century. Each section of the volume explores a different aspect of the puzzle of the neglect of Kelsen's work in various disciplinary and national settings. Part I provides reconstructions of Kelsen's legal theory and defends that theory against negative assessments in Anglo-American jurisprudence. Part II focuses both on Kelsen's theoretical views on international law and his practical involvement in the post-war development of international criminal law. Part III addresses Kelsen's theories of democracy and justice while placing him in dialogue with other major twentieth-century thinkers, including two fellow émigré scholars, Leo Strauss and Albert Ehrenzweig. Part IV explores Kelsen's intellectual legacies through European and American perspectives on the interaction of Kelsen's theoretical approach to law and national legal traditions in the United States and Germanny. Each contribution features a particular applications of Kelsen's approach to doctrinal and interpretive issues currently of interest in the legal academy. The volume concludes with two chapters on the nature of Kelsen's legal theory as an instance of modernism Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction: Hans Kelsen for Americans....Pages 1-13 Front Matter....Pages 15-15 Kelsen in the United States: Still Misunderstood....Pages 17-29 Marmor’s Kelsen....Pages 31-55 Front Matter....Pages 57-57 The Kelsen-Hart Debate: Hart’s Critique of Kelsen’s Legal Monism Reconsidered....Pages 59-83 Peace and Global Justice through Prosecuting the Crime of Aggression? Kelsen and Morgenthau on the Nuremberg Trials and the International Judicial Function....Pages 85-99 Hans Kelsen, The Second World War and the U.S. Government....Pages 101-112 Front Matter....Pages 113-113 Arriving at Justice by a Process of Elimination: Hans Kelsen and Leo Strauss....Pages 115-133 Kelsen and Niebuhr on Democracy....Pages 135-159 Hans Kelsen’s Psychoanalytic Heritage—An Ehrenzweigian Reconstruction....Pages 161-174 A Morally Enlightened Positivism? Kelsen and Habermas on the Democratic Roots of Validity in Municipal and International Law....Pages 175-213 Front Matter....Pages 215-215 The Neglect of Hans Kelsen in West German Public Law Scholarship, 1945–1980....Pages 217-228 Philosophy of Law and Theory of Law: “The Continuity of Kelsen’s Years in America”....Pages 229-247 Pure Formalism? Kelsenian Interpretative Theory between Textualism and Realism....Pages 249-263 Cognition and Reason: Rethinking Kelsen in the Context of Contract and Business Law....Pages 265-296 Kelsen’s View of the Addressee of the Law: Primary and Secondary Norms....Pages 297-317 Kelsen, Justice, and Constructivism....Pages 319-328 Front Matter....Pages 329-329 In Defense of Modern Times: A Keynote Address....Pages 331-342 The Free Exercise Clause and Hans Kelsen’s Modernist Secularism....Pages 343-362 Back Matter....Pages 363-368