Hans Kelson (1881-1973)-

     Hans Kelson was Austrian Jurist. He was born at Prague in Austria in 1881 and was a professor of law at the Vienna
University. She was also the judge of the supreme constitutional Court of Austria for 10 years during 1920 to 1930.  thereafter
he shifted to England he came to the United  States and work as a professor of law in several American Universities and
authored many books. He released the "Theory of law entitled "The General Theory of Law and State 1945. it drew the
attention of the modern jurisprudents and came to be known as Kelson's Pure Theory of Law.

Kelsons Pure theory of Law

       According to Kelson a theory of law should be uniform. It should be applicable to all times and in all places.  according to
him, Law must be free from ethics, politics, history, sociology etc in other words,  it must be pure.

Key features of Kelson’s Pure Theory:

The theory of law must be distinguished from this law itself - 

            Law itself consists of a mass of heterogeneous of rules and the function of the theory of law is to relate them in
a logical pattern and to recognize them in single ordinarily unit

 Theory of law should be uniform - 

            According to Kelsen, a theory of law should be uniform. for example - it should be applicable at all times and in all
places

Law is Normative Science - 

             According to Kelson law is a normative science and it is not a natural science based on cause and effect like law of
gravitation.

Theory of Law must be pure -

            According to Kelson's pure theory of law, it must be free from Ethics, Morality, Politics Sociology, History etc it must be
pure.

According to Kelsen law is a normative science -

            Jurisprudence is the knowledge of norms. Law is a normative science. A norm of law is simply a preposition in
hypothetical from. A norm of law has a distinct feature. They are different from Science norm.

 Hierarchy of normative relations -

          For Kelsen law is the knowledge of hierarchy of normative relations. He does not want to include in his theory what
ought to be but for him, law is a theory of analysis an analysis that is free from all ethical and political judgment of value

Merits of the Pure Theory of Law 

(1) Kelson recognized International Law as a law

(2) Pure theory of law is best for peaceful change

(3) It makes the most refined development of analytical positivism

(4) Kelson's concept of legal system is clear original and striking

(5) Kelson has explained that no law can prevail country to grundnorm or constitution

(6) Kelson's Pure Theory of Law is considered to be the most outstanding theory of law

Criticism of Kelsons Pure theory law

Grund norms vague And confusing-

Purity of nerve cannot be maintained

Natural law is ignored

Supremacy of international law

No practical significance
Analysis

1. The theory of Kelsen suggests that Grunderm is the concept of the constitution that is ought to be folled. Constitutiton of a
country is a sociological, political document and therefore Grundnorm is not pure

2. Kelsen also said that law should be kept free from ethics/ morality. He insisted on the law to be effective and thus he
accepted indirectly ethics as a part of effectiveness.

3. kelsen attempted to change the law into a science, a theory that could be understood through logic, but on the other hand
he emphasized the validity of the grundnorm to “assumed” rather than based on some logic.

4. Kelsen tried to find the law and legal norms in a middle realm between absolute ethical values and social facts. Therefore,
rejection of the relevance of ethics the idea makes the legal science sterile and useless and rejects factual the nature of law
and separates it from reality