The Old Testament dates again to 1280 BC and takes the type of ethical imperatives as recommendations for a great society. The small Greek metropolis-state, historic Athens, from about the eighth century BC was the primary society to be based on broad inclusion of its citizenry, excluding women and the slave class. However, Athens had no authorized science or single word for “regulation”, relying instead on the three-means distinction between divine law (thémis), human decree (nomos) and customized (díokayē). Yet Ancient Greek legislation contained major constitutional improvements in the development of democracy.

Thus, each authorized system could be hypothesised to have a fundamental norm (Grundnorm) instructing us to obey. Kelsen’s main opponent, Carl Schmitt, rejected each positivism and the concept of the rule of law because he did not settle for the primacy of summary normative ideas over concrete political positions and choices. Therefore, Schmitt advocated a jurisprudence of the … Read More