"Law and its others: natural law, morality and social policy" [2019] ELECD 1061; in Orakhelashvili, Alexander (ed), "Domesticating Kelsen" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 33

Book Title: Domesticating Kelsen

Editor(s): Orakhelashvili, Alexander

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Law and its others: natural law, morality and social policy

Number of pages: 50

Abstract/Description:

Chapter 3 focuses on the relationship between legal and non-legal factors within the legal system. The pure theory clearly formulates its focus so as to include positive law within it and exclude non-legal considerations from it. This does not mean, however, that the pure theory does not admit that non-legal considerations influence the development of the law. But the key question is how that happens. Kelsen’s emphasis on the positive legal aspect of authority distinguishes his analysis from sociological and interest-based theories in the sense that, while the English legal system deals with those non-legal considerations on its own terms, those considerations are not the legal theory’s business.