Primary Sources

Kelsen’s academic publications span over almost seven decades in which he published dozens of books and hundreds of articles. Only about a third of this vast literature has been translated to English. Kelsen’s two most important books on the pure theory of law are the first edition of his Reine Rechtslehre, published in 1934 and recently (2002) translated. The second edition, which Kelson published in 1960 (translated in 1967) is a considerably extended version of the first edition. In addition, most of the themes in these two books also appear in Kelsen’s General Theory of Law and State. These three works are cited in text as follows:

Other relevant publications in English include:

• 1957, What is Justice?, Berkeley: University of California Press.
• 1941, ‘The Pure Theory of Law and Analytical Jurisprudence’, Harvard Law Review, 55: 44–70. (Scholar)
• 1965, ‘Professor Stone and the Pure Theory of Law: A Reply’, Stanford Law Rev, 17(6): 1128–1157. (Scholar)
• 1966, ‘On the Pure Theory of Law’, Israel Law Review, 1(1): 1–7. (Scholar)

For a complete list of Kelsen’s publications that have appeared in English see the Appendix to H. Kelsen, General Theory of Norms, M. Hartney (trans.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 440–454.

Secondary Sources

• Green, S.M., 2016, “Marmor’s Kelsen”, in D.A. Jeremy Telman (ed.), Hans Kelsen in America, Dordrecht: Springer Verlag. (Scholar)
• Harris, J.W., 1980, Legal Philosophies (Chapter 6), London: Butterworths. (Scholar)
• Hart, H.L.A., 1961, The Concept of Law (Chapter 3), Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1970, “Kelsen’s Doctrine of the Unity of Law”, in H.E. Kiefer and M.K. Munitz (eds.), Ethics and Social Justice, New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 171–199. (Scholar)
• Marmor, A., 2001, Objective Law and Positive Values, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2011, Philosophy of Law, The Princeton Series in the Foundations of Contemporary Philosophy (S. Soames ed.), Chapter 1, Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Scholar)
• Paulson, S., 2002, Introduction to Kelsen’s Introduction to the Problems of Legal Theory, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. xvii. (Scholar)
• –––, 2012. “A ‘Justified Normativity’ Thesis in Hans Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law? Rejoinders to Robert Alexy and Joseph Raz”, in Matthias Klatt (ed.), Institutionalized Reason: The Jurisprudence of Robert Alexy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 61–111.
• –––, 2013. “The Great Puzzle: Kelsen’s Basic Norm”, in Luis Duarte d’Almeida, John Gardner, and Leslie Green (eds.), Kelsen Revisited: New Essays on the Pure Theory of Law, Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp. 43–62. (Scholar)
• Raz, J., 1980, The Concept of a Legal System, 2^nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1979, ‘Kelsen’s Theory of the Basic Norm’, in J. Raz, The Authority of Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 122–145. (Scholar)
• Tur, R.H. & W. Twining (eds.), 1986, Essays on Kelsen, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Scholar)

Contemporary Discussions and Further Reading

• Bix, B., 2018, “Kelsen, Hart, and Legal Normativity”, Revus, 34: 1–17, doi:10.4000/revus.3984 (Scholar)
• Gragl, P., 2017, “In Defence of Kelsenian Monism: Countering Hart and Raz”, Jurisprudence, 8(2): 287–318. (Scholar)
• Green, S. M., 2021, “Hans Kelsen’s Non-Reductive Positivism”, in T. Spaak & P. Mindus (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Legal Positivism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 272–300. (Scholar)
• Guastini, R., 2016, “Kelsen on Validity (Once More)”, Ratio Juris, 29: 402–409. (Scholar)
• Langford, P., Bryan, I., & McGarry, J. (eds.), 2017, Kelsenian Legal Science and the Nature of Law, Cham: Springer. (Scholar)
• Orakhelashvili, A., 2019, Domesticating Kelsen: Towards the Pure Theory of English Law, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing (Scholar)
• Pavlakos, G., 2018, “Non-naturalism, Normativity and the Meaning of Ought: Some Lessons from Kelsen”, in K. E. Himma, M. Jovanovic & B. Spaic (eds.), Unpacking Normativity Conceptual, Normative, and Descriptive Issues, Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp. 77–94. (Scholar)
• Paulson, S. L., 2019, “Hans Kelsen on Legal Interpretation, Legal Cognition, and Legal Science”, Jurisprudence, 10(2): 188–221. (Scholar)
• –––2017, “Metamorphosis in Hans Kelsen’s Legal Philosophy”, Moderna Law Review, 80(5): 860–894. (Scholar)
• –––2018, “The Purity Thesis”, Ratio Juris, 31(3): 276–306. (Scholar)
• Spaak, T., 2018, “A Challenge to Bix’s Interpretation of Kelsen and Hart’s Views on the Normativity of Law”, Revus, 37: 75–82, doi:10.4000/revus.4561 (Scholar)