Antinomies of the United Nations: Hans Kelsen and Alf Ross on the Charter

In , Alf Ross locates his theoretical position as a between the `pure theory of law` of his teacher, Hans Kelsen, and the American legal realism he identified with Jerome Frank. When Ross and Kelsen came, however, to publish their respective studies of the UN Charter in 1950  Ross` and Kelsen`s massive  their perspectives converge. This article places their analysis of the UN Charter in the context of their theoretical writings, but despite Kelsen`s pure theory of law and Ross` Scandinavian realism, the two share a sense of law`s dependence upon sanction and an understanding of the political underpinning of law`s creation. And both held a strong commitment to international law doctrine, so that when they came to criticize the Charter, whether for its logical inconsistencies or the increased role of the political, they depict the Charter as ultimately representing a legal system that takes up the space of traditional international law. In their two works, Kelsen and Ross both register a tragic concern about that disappearing act of traditional international law doctrine. Towards a Realistic Jurisprudence via media Constitution of the United Nations The Law of the United Nations