Hans Kelsen

Hans Kelsen, the iconic Austrian-American jurist, is my favourite political philosopher — and has been for as long as I can remember. He is also, I would argue, the most important and most neglected political thinker of the twentieth century. From where I stand, we need his kind of liberalism more than ever.

A most misunderstood man, Hans Kelsen (1881–1973) was the greatest jurist of the twentieth century — called so by Harvard Law Dean Roscoe Pound, and by Bernhard Schlink in the pages of the New York Times. Born in Prague under the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph, he drafted the 1920 Austrian Constitution, built the Pure Theory of Law, and dreamed, without illusion, of a legal order genuinely above the sovereign state. The Nazis drove him from Europe. He rebuilt his life in America, living his last three decades in the Berkeley Hills, and died in Orinda, California, in 1973. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific.

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Hans Kelsen ~1930 (1881–1973), Austrian-American jurist and political philosopher

In May 2026, during my appointment as the 2025-26 Fulbright-Botstiber Visiting Professor of Austrian-American Studies at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University, I had the pleasure of visiting Richard Buxbaum, Professor of Law Emeritus at UC Berkeley and a personal friend of Hans Kelsen. Out of our conversation grew a piece called “A Berkeley Memory of Hans Kelsen,” and eventually an idea for another book — of which more soon.

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With Richard Buxbaum at UC Berkeley Faculty Club, May 2026
Source: Photo courtesy of the author

Hans Kelsen in the United States

Supported by the Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich (Future Funds of the Republic of Austria) grant P26-6264

Robert Schuett. “A Kelsenian Justice for Our Time.” Global Policy, June 8, 2026.

Robert Schuett. “A Berkeley Memory of Hans Kelsen.” Global Policy, June 1, 2026.

Robert Schuett. “Kelsen and the Oldest Political Argument.” Global Policy, May 25, 2026.

Robert Schuett. “Kelsen, Lost in Translation?” Global Policy, May 18, 2026.

Robert Schuett. “Kelsen, Power, and God.” Global Policy, May 11, 2026.

Robert Schuett. “Kelsen on Vance and Niebuhr.” Global Policy, May 4, 2026.

Robert Schuett. “Kelsen, the Sanctuary, and the Spy.” Global Policy, April 27, 2026.

Robert Schuett. “The Pope, the Tyrants, and the Man They Both Need to Read.” Global Policy, April 20, 2026.

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Stephens Hall, UC Berkeley, May 2026
Source: Photo courtesy of the author