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'An exercise in logic and not in life' - Does this statement exemplify the criticism directed against the 'pure theory of law'?
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'An exercise in logic and not in life'. Doest this statement exemplify the criticism directed against the 'pure theory of law'? 1. INTRODUCTION the quotation comes from Laski's Grammar of Politics, in which he suggests that, given its postulates. Kelsen's 'pure theory' of law is unanswerable, but that its substance is an exercise in logic, not in life. Many of the criticisms directed against the 'pure theory' do rest, indeed, on what is perceived as its aridity and seperation from the realities of legal activity within the community. But there are other important criticisms, some of which are mentioned below, based on the implications of Kelsen's methodology of enquiry. The target of these criticisms is a theory which emerges from an attempt to view law purely in terms of reason and in a manner which excludes all ethical and political value-judgements. Law is as a coercive order, based on a system of norms,...
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