Abstract

This essay is concerned with a critical analysis of Thomas Olechowski’s contribution, Hans Kelsen. Biographie eines Rechtswissenschaftlers, published in 2020 by Mohr Siebeck, the most extensive scholarly biography of the Austrian jurist since that written by Rudolf Aladár Métall in 1969, while Hans Kelsen was still alive. In particular, my purpose was to emphasise the political dimension, and especially the democratic commitment and the struggle against authoritarian ideology, that characterised the Reine Rechtslehre, as opposed to those interpretations that stressed its apolitical and value-neutral approach.