REVOLUTION UND REINES RECHT – EINE ZERREISSPROBE.

The article discusses the intersection of pure legal theory and political revolutions, which create authority through symbols and violence, and through his discussion criticizes the legal positivism of Hans Kelsen, a German legal scholar. Kelsen's theories are examined and the author argues that they are rendered inapplicable during revolution due to the lack of independence of enjoyed by positive law, on the one hand, and the invalidation of the is/ought distinction on which they are based, on the other. The author concludes that Kelsen's theory is in danger of reducing itself to a theory of abstract natural law, and cannot be used to describe legal transformation in times of revolution, which are political and moral.