The Communist Theory of Law

by Hans Kelsen

A EDITORA CONTRACORRENTE tem a satisfação de anunciar a publicação do livro A TEORIA COMUNISTA DO DIREITO, do celebrado jurista e filósofo Hans Kelsen.
Trata-se da primeira edição em português deste magistral trabalho, cujo conteúdo está dividido em nove capítulos, nos quais são discutidos autores como Marx e Engels, Lenin, Stutchka, Pachukanis e mesmo Vichinsky, seguidos de uma breve conclusão em apenas três tópicos.
O próprio Kelsen deixa claro que não trata do "Direito comunista", mas da "teoria do Direito apresentada por autores que aplicam, ou pretendem aplicar, os princípios do comunismo".
Como dizem os professores Marcelo Andrade Cattoni de Oliveira, Pedro Serrano e Rafael Valim, em prefácio à obra, "Kelsen, por sua trajetória e por sua obra, é, pois, um autor incontornável. Pode-se com toda certeza discordar dele, mas jamais desconsiderar o seu pensamento. Principalmente para aquelas e aqueles que buscam compreender as vicissitudes da teoria do Direito, em meados do século XX, assim como seus desafios, legados e limitações".

203 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Hans Kelsen was an Austrian jurist, legal philosopher and political philosopher. He was the author of the 1920 Austrian Constitution, which to a very large degree is still valid today. Due to the rise of totalitarianism in Austria (and a 1929 constitutional change), Kelsen left for Germany in 1930 but was forced to leave this university post after Hitler's seizure of power in 1933 because of his Jewish ancestry. That year he left for Geneva and later moved to the United States in 1940. In 1934, Roscoe Pound lauded Kelsen as "undoubtedly the leading jurist of the time." While in Vienna, Kelsen met Sigmund Freud and his circle, and wrote on the subject of social psychology and sociology.

By the 1940s, Kelsen's reputation was already well established in the United States for his defense of democracy and for his Pure Theory of Law. Kelsen's academic stature exceeded legal theory alone and extended to political philosophy and social theory as well. His influence encompassed the fields of philosophy, legal science, sociology, the theory of democracy, and international relations.

Reviews

[Anderson Paz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma análise destruidora da teoria comunista do Nesse livro escrito em 1955, Kelsen analisa a teoria do direito de pensadores comunistas. De início, Kelsen trata da teoria do direito de Marx e Engels. Basicamente, eles defendiam que a teoria do direito é uma ideologia burguesa, reflexo das relações econômicas, e que no comunismo o direito ideológico (ilusório) seria superado por meio da completa igualdade. Lênin, por sua vez, entendia que durante o socialismo o direito ditatorial seria necessário, mas no comunismo seria superado. A igualdade prevaleceria.
Em seguida, Kelsen apresenta a teoria do direito se Stutchka, Reisner, Pachukanis, Vichinski, Golunski e Strogovich e a teoria soviética do direito internacional. Esses autores, cada um a seu modo, demonstram sua profunda corrupção moral e intelectual criando teorias do direito incongruentes e incoerentes.
Kelsen mostra a corrupção moral e intelectual dos pensadores comunistas que foram adaptando o dogmatismo gnóstico de Marx a um servilismo do sistema ditatorial de Stálin. Kelsen conclui que a teoria comunista do direito fracassou ao se tornar uma "jurisprudência sociológica" (longe de purificar o direito), por ter um caráter fortemente ideológico, e por tornar o direito um instrumento de luta política. Essa é uma obra teórica devastadora sobre teorias absurdas e perigosas à liberdade individual. direito

[Antonio Barsch · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as Kelsen is a great author in jurisprudence - and I highly recommend his other works to be read -, this book of his faces many problems. Just for context, Kelsen was part of the Viennese Socialists, i.e., he was a social-democrat. He has shown animosity towards Marxist-Leninist theories already in his writings about democracy by claiming that class war can be ditched in favour of the liberal democracy game, that is, workers could improve their life condition by voting and participating. This book of his was written as a response to a series of soviet authors whose works were compiled and translated to English in the 1950s. However, there is a grave problem already here: these works were but excerpts of the original works. Therefore only small parts of their books were presented there; e.g., Stucka's The Revolutionary Role of Law and State had more than half of its content done away with in the edition Kelsen read. In light of this, much of what Kelsen wrote is understandably disconnected with much of the soviet jurists' theories, but it is remarkable that a jurist of Kelsen's caliber would commit such a grave mistake.

The most interesting part of this book is Kelsen's response to Pashukanis, whose General Theory of Law and Marxism is an attack on Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law (but also directed to other authors, such as Petrazhitski). This is the most solid portion of this book and even a very interesting look into Kelsen's academic debates (others are his debates with Voegelin and Schmitt). In spite of that, the theoretical quality of this chapter, when compared to his other works - both political and legal -, is very underwhelming. The methodological rigour in which he takes pride is not to be seen here; he only presents a few loose remarks with no clear connection. One needs to know his other works to be able to sketch a unitary theory contained in this chapter, but even this is hard to do.

The other chapters are much worse. They contain no clear theory and he heavily misinterprets the soviet authors. This has mainly to do with the fact that the works he had access to were incomplete. The clearest example possible is Stucka's work. Kelsen writes without taking into account Stucka's main point: that law is an expression of the relations of production, i.e., the mode of production takes an abstract form that conditions people to reproduce the same structure. Kelsen heavily misses the point - despite being a Marxist - and interprets it in a purely contractual manner. Sure, contracts are part of this abstract form, but only under capitalism; in other modes of production, as Stucka himself points out, the contract is marginal to production.

This is one example, one with which I had close contact since I wrote a few articles and a monograph on Stucka, Kelsen, and Pashukanis. However, the same can be seen with the other authors Kelsen critiques. Outside of a serious academic inquire into Kelsen's theories, this book is nigh useless; "nigh" and not totally due to the fact that Kelsen's response to Pashukanis is the only good chapter. This is far from Kelsen's good theoretical writings (Pure Theory of Law; What is Justice?; A New Science of Politics; L'amor platonico; etc.). If this book were scrapped from his bibliography, it would be a favour to Kelsen's legacy.