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Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit [Hans Kelsen in His Time] Schriftenreihe des Hans Kelsen-Instituts, Band 40 Clemens Jabloner, Thomas Olechowski and Klaus Zeleny (eds) MANZ'sche Verlags- und Universitätsbuchhandlung, 2019, 385 pp, €79.00, ISBN 9873214147617

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2020

Izhak Englard*
Affiliation:
Bora Laskin Professor of Law (Emeritus), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; englard@court.gov.il
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press and The Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2020

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References

1 Robert Walter, Werner Ogris and Olechowski, Thomas, (eds), Hans Kelsen: Leben – Werk – Wirksamkeit (Manzsche Verlags- and Universitätsbuchhandlung 2009)Google Scholar; Aliprantis, Nikita and Olechowski, Thomas (eds), Hans Kelsen: Die Aktualität eines grossen Rechtswissenschaftlers und Soziologen des 20. Jahrhunderts (Manzsche Verlags- and Universitätsbuchhandlung 2014)Google Scholar; Pils, Ramon (ed), Terminologiewörterbuch Hans Kelsen (Manzsche Verlags- and Universitätsbuchhandlung 2016)Google Scholar; Jabloner, Clemens, Olechowski, Thomas and Zeleny, Klaus (eds), Das internationale Wirken Hans Kelsens (Manzsche Verlags- and Universitätsbuchhandlung 2016)Google Scholar. For a list of the articles see Table of Contents in Jabloner, Clemens, Olechowski, Thomas and Zeleny, Klaus, Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (Manzsche Verlags- and Universitätsbuchhandlung 2019) xiGoogle Scholar.

2 On the origin of this title see Tamara Ehs, ‘Vertreibung in drei Schritten – Hans Kelsens Netzwerk und die Anfänge österreichischer Politikwissenschaft’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 231, fn 3.

3 Not long after the establishment of a Constitutional Court by the Austrian provisional Constitution of 1919, a Constitutional Court was founded by the Czechoslovakian Constitution of February 1920. However, the Czechoslovakian Constitution preceded the Austrian provisional Constitution in granting the new court the competence of judicial review of the laws. The original Austrian Constitutional Court was precluded from invalidating unconstitutional laws after their official publication. This situation changed with the Austrian Constitution of October 1920: Jana Osterkamp, Vefassungsgerichtbarkeit in der Tschechoslowakei (1920–1939) (Klostermann 2009) 1 fn 2; Ludwig Adamovich, Die Prüfung der Gesetze und Verordnungen durch den österreichischen Vefassungsgerichtshof (F Deuticke 1923) 102 onwards.

4 In this sense see Thomas Olechowski, ‘Biographical Researches on Hans Kelsen in the Years 1881–1920’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 1, 19. The author states that Kelsen's autobiography of 1947, on which Rudolf Aladár Métall based his biography of Kelsen in 1969, was in ‘many ways an unreliable source’: ibid 2–4, 19.

5 ibid 19, noting also: ‘In this sense, legal history acts as a “servant” of legal philosophy’.

6 Thomas Olechowski, ‘Über die Herkunft Hans Kelsens’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 21–23. The author mentions the fact that anti-Semitic Nazi professors invented the story that Kelsen's original name was Kohn: ibid 23 and fn 11.

7 Englard, Izhak, ‘Nazi Criticism Against the Normativist Theory of Hans Kelsen: Its Intellectual Basis and Post-Modern Tendencies’ (1998) 32 Israel Law Review 183, 217–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 233, 237–40.

8 Englard, Izhak, ‘Haben Kelsens Reine Rechtslehre, seine Faszination für Religion und sein Religionsverständnis einen jüdischen Hintergrund?’ in Jabloner, Clemens, Olechowski, Thomas and Zeleny, Klaus (eds), Secular Religion – Rezeption und Kritik von Hans Kelsens Auseinandersetzung mit Religion und Wissenschaft (Manzsche Verlags- und Universitätsbuchhandlung 2013) 101Google Scholar. A Hebrew version of this paper is published in Celia Wasserstein Fassberg, Barak Medina and Joshua Weisman (eds), Essays in Law in Honour of Avigdor V Levontin (Nevo 2013) 363.

9 Jürgen Busch, ‘Hans Kelsen an der Exportakademie in Wien’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 35; Thomas Olechowski, ‘Hans Kelsen als Mitglied der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrervereinigung’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 151; Thomas Olechowski and Stefan Wedrac, ‘Hans Kelsen und Washington’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 259.

10 Jürgen Busch and Nicoletta Bersier Ladavac, ‘Zwischen zwei Welten – Hans Kelsens Genfer Jahre’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 167; Thomas Olechowski and Jürgen Busch, ‘Hans Kelsen als Professor an der Deutschen Universität Prag 1936–1938: Biographische Aspekte der Kelsen-Sander-Kontroverse’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 197; Thomas Olechowski, ‘Hans Kelsen in Berkeley: “Des Wandermüden letzte Ruhestätte”’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 363.

11 See nn 21, 26, 28.

12 Thomas Olechowski, ‘Kelsens Debellatio-These – Rechtshistorische und rechtstheoretische Überlegungen zur Kontinuität von Staaten’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 275.

13 Tamara Ehs, ‘Felix Frankfurter, Hans Kelsen, and the Practice of Judicial Review’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 297.

14 Miriam Gassner, ‘Der Kreis um Hans Kelsen in Lateinamerika – Wie die Reine Rechtslehre Lateinamerika eroberte’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 323. The topic of the influence of Kelsen's theories in the various countries has been the subject of a series of publications by the Hans Kelsen-Institut.

15 Ehs (n 2).

16 See the summary: Ehs (n 2) 255–58.

17 Thomas Olechowski, ‘Von Georg Jellinek zu Hans Kelsen’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 69, 72–78.

18 ibid. The history of the Jellinek family is typical of the inclination of the educated German Jewish middle class towards assimilation by means of conversion to Christianity: see the detailed and comprehensive work of Kempter, Klaus, Die Jellineks 1820–1955: Eine familienbiographische Studie zum deutschjüdischen Bidungsbürgertum (Droste Verlag Düsseldorf 1998)Google Scholar. The father of Georg Jellinek, Adolf Jellinek (1820–93), was a famous rabbi-preacher and scholar in Vienna. His son, Georg, was married to Camilla Jellinek-Wertheim (1860–1940), a women's rights activist and lawyer, who was of Catholic origin. Camilla's father, Gustav Wertheim, was of Jewish origin; therefore, in order to marry the Catholic woman Wilhelmine Walcher, under Austrian law he had to convert to Catholicism. Correspondingly, in order to marry Georg Jellinek of Jewish origin, Camilla had to convert to Judaism. The Hebrew ketubah of the couple has been preserved (dated 13 Tamuz 5643 = 18 July 1883); there the bridegroom's Jewish name is Gershon, and the converted bride's (גיורתא) name is Esther b. Avraham. It seems that Kempter had no knowledge of this ketubah: ibid 239–40. In 1896 they baptised their children, among them Walter Jellinek (1885–1955), to Protestantism: Kempter, ibid 288–89. Shortly before Georg Jellinek's death, he and his wife converted to Lutheranism: ibid 380–81. Their son, Walter Jellinek, Professor of Law at the German Universities of Kiel and Heidelberg, was dismissed by the Nazis in 1935 and restored to his academic position after the Second World War. He was convinced that the Jellinek family was originally of Arian origin: Kempter, ibid 18–24 and passim. His many attempts to persuade the Nazi authorities of that fact remained unsuccessful. His positive attitude towards the Nazi regime remains very problematic: Kempter, ibid 478–86.

19 Korb, Axel-Johannes, Kelsens Kritiker – Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Rechts- und Staatstheorie (1911–1934) (Mohr Siebeck 2010) 253–60Google Scholar.

20 Thomas Olechowski, ‘Hans Kelsen und die Berufungen nach Graz, Czernowitz und Wien 1916–1919’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 93, 105.

21 Thomas Olechowski, ‘Rechtsphilosophie gegen Rechtsgeschichte? Ein Juristenstreit aus der Zwischenkriegszeit an der Wiener Rechtsfakultät’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 109. On Schwind's anti-Semitic attitude see ibid 112, 123–24; Korb (n 19) 255–58.

22 Olechowski (n 21) 116.

23 Schwind, Ernst, Grundlagen und Grundfragen des Rechts – Rechtstheoretische Betrachtungen und Erörterungen (Hueber München 1928)Google Scholar.

24 Kelsen, Hans, Rechtsgeschichte gegen Rechtsphilosophie? Eine Erwiderung (Julius Springer 1928)Google Scholar. On the content of the controversy see Olechowski (n 21) 118–24. Schwind was severely offended by Kelsen's sharp reply: ibid 123.

25 Olechowski (n 21) 124–26.

26 Jürgen Busch and Kamila Staudigl-Ciechowicz, ‘Ein Kampf ums Recht? Bruchlinien in Recht, Kultur und Tradition in der Kontroverse zwischen Kelsen und Hold-Ferneck an der Wiener Juristenfakultät’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 127. It relates to the following publications: Alexander Hold-Ferneck, Der Staat als Übermensch – Zugleich eine Auseinandersetzung mit der Rechtslehre Kelsens (Gustav Fischer Verlag 1926); Hans Kelsen, Der Staat als Übermensch – Eine Erwiderung (Julius Springer 1926); Hold-Ferneck, Alexander, Ein Kampf ums Recht – Entgegnung auf Kelsens Schrift ‘Der Staat als Übermensch’ (Gustav Fischer Verlag 1927)Google Scholar.

27 On Hold-Ferneck's anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi attitude see Busch and Staudigl-Ciechowicz (n 26) 145–48.

28 Miriam Gassner and Thomas Olechowski, ‘Egologische Rechtslehre versus Reine Rechtslehre – Cossio versus Kelsen’ in Hans Kelsen in seiner Zeit (n 1) 347; on that controversy see also Gassner (n 14) 327–41.

29 Gassner and Olechowski (n 28) 352; see also Neil Duxbury, ‘Carlos Cossio and Egological Legal Philosophy’ (1989) 2 Ratio Juris 274, 275.

30 Gassner and Olechowski (n 28) 357–61. For a critique of Cossio's theory see Duxbury (n 29).

31 Gassner (n 14) 329–34, 343.

32 The reasons for this are mentioned in Olechowski (n 10) 369–72; and in Gassner (n 14) 343. See especially DA Jeremy Telman, ‘A Path Not Taken: Hans Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law in the Land of Legal Realists’ in Robert Walter, Clemens Jabloner and Klaus Zeleny (eds), Hans Kelsen anderswo [Hans Kelsen Abroad] (Manzsche Verlags- und Universitätsbuchhandlung 2010) 353. However, as Olechowski mentions ((n 10) 369 fn 37), in recent times there seems to have arisen in the US a greater interest in Kelsen's theory.

33 Olechowski and Busch (n 10) 197, 204–11, 224–29.

34 ibid 204 fn 31, and the sources mentioned there.

35 According to Sander's widow and official documents, the death was caused by a sudden corporal failure: ibid 227–28.

36 ibid 229.

37 Busch and Bersier Ladavac (n 10) 167.

38 ibid 173. See also Olechowski and Wedrac (n 9) 261.

39 ibid 267–73.