Keywords

• This paper offers a historical-conceptual reconstruction of Hans Kelsenâ€
• ™
• s theory of legal interpretation. My aim is threefold: first
• shed light â€
• “
• through Kelsenâ€
• ™
• s critique to it â€
• “
• on the real nature of formalism in legal interpretation of xix century
• second
• understand whether this theory can fit to what H. L. A. Hart called «rule-scepticism» or to his theory of open texture â€
• “
• the most influential views in the current debate on legal interpretation â€
• “
• third
• try to solve that puzzle consisting in the full validity of a judicial decision lying «outside the frame represented by the norm to be applied» â€
• “
• a claim that not only appears a contradiction in itself
• but that has raised many questions of compatibility with the entire pure theory of law