Yet Ancient Greek law contained main constitutional innovations in the improvement of democracy. In 1934, the Austrian philosopher Hans Kelsen continued the positivist tradition in his book the Pure Theory of Law. Kelsen believed that though law is separate from morality, it is endowed with “normativity”, meaning we ought to obey it. While legal guidelines are positive “is” statements (e.g. the nice for reversing on a freeway is €500); law tells us what we “ought to” do. Thus, each authorized system may be hypothesised to have a basic norm instructing us to obey.
Bentham and Austin argued for law’s positivism; that real law is completely separate from “morality”. Kant was additionally criticised by Friedrich Nietzsche, who rejected the principle of equality, and believed that law emanates from the desire to energy, and can’t be labeled as “moral” or “immoral”. Definitions of law often increase the question of the extent to …