Hans Kelsens Works

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matthias Jestaedt
• Subject Area: Principles of Law and Jurisprudence ; Public Law
• Term: from 2006 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5456481

Hans Kelsen (1881-1973), born into the Austro-Hungarian Empire and forced out of Germany in 1933 by the National Socialist regime, was "unquestionably the leading jurist of his time" (thus Roscoe Pound, one of the US's foremost legal scholars). His legal theory was path-breaking and he was an influential thinker in several related fields, inter alia in Theory of State (Allgemeine Staatslehre), public law, international law and its theory, legal, social and political theory, sociology of law, state and religion. He also contributed to the burgeoning debate on the theory of science. Despite the global importance of his thought, there is no (other) collected works edition of his writings, which were published in a fragmented fashion and in a number of languages. The "Hans Kelsen Werke" are making the previously published writings as well as previously unpublished work available in a comprehensive historical-critical edition. Working in close co-operation with the Hans Kelsen Institute in Vienna (the copyright holders for Kelsen's work) all of Kelsen's writings are published here in chronological order and in the language of their original publication. The previously published writings amount to approx. 18,000 pages; Kelsen's scholarly papers - a large proportion of which has not, so far, been subject to in-depth scholarly treatment - amount to approx. 59,000 pages. The collected works edition will conclude with volumes containing extensive indices, tables of cases and other legal sources, bibliographies as well as an up-to date scholarly biography of Kelsen's life and works.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants