KELSEN

Kelsen intended to propose a theory from a morality free perspective. The purity of his theory is
affirmed by the fact that legal norms can have any content as “statements of positive law
were not statements of moral or political value.”
He defines law as a mechanism of coercion imposing norms which are laid down by human acts
in accordance with a constitution, the validity of which is presupposed if it is on the whole
efficacious.
Thus, two ideas i.e. officialdom and coercion, formulate the main characteristics of his theory.
The technique of social organization for him is the application of coercion by agents or officials.
Hence, Kelsen describes a legal norm as directions to officials to apply sanctions when certain
circumstances arise.
Law only applies to officials and not to citizens as they merely create circumstances triggering
legal powers. Citizens can only commit, what Kelsen calls, a ‘delict’. This delict is actually a
secondary norm which ‘greatly facilitates matters’. Thus, only officials can actually break the law
while citizens simply trigger the duty powers of officials. “Law is the primary norm, which
stipulates the sanction, and this norm is not contradicted by the delict of the subject,
which, on the contrary, is the specific condition of the sanction.”
The nucleus of Kelsen’s pure theory is law is his grundnorm. He believes there to be a
hierarchy, or a ‘ladder’ of norms in order to find the root of the title of laws. Going up this chain
of validity, we must at some point come to an end, says Kelsen. If we were to continue the
process, we would never be able to establish the validity of norms, because we would have to
go on to infinity. Rather we reach to some ultimate norm that confers validity upon all the other
norms. This norm, Kelson calls the grundnorm basic norm, which can be observed when we
cannot, in principle, trace our chain of validity back any further. Notably, this basic norm is a
presupposition unlike Hart’s rule of recognition.