Pure Theory of Law
An attempt to introduce the “critical” method of Kant to the understanding of positive law. Kelsen, who coined the expression, intended to create “a geometry of the totality of legal phenomena.” All legal phenomena are to be reduced to norms which have the form”If A is, then B ought to be”, all norms are to be derived from one basic norm [Grundnorm]. It is the task of a theory of law to establish the unity of all legal phenomena. — W.E.