The expert in constitutional law Hans Kelsen died on 19 April 1973 in Berkeley/USA.
Kelsen studied at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Vienna. With his habilitation thesis “Hauptprobleme der Staatsrechtslehre” (1911), he laid the foundation for a new scientific approach to law, which became known worldwide as “Reine Rechtslehre”. A full professor at the University of Vienna since 1919, Kelsen was an important contributor to the 1920 Federal Constitutional Law, the core of the constitution still in force in Austria today.
Professor at the University of Cologne since 1930, Kelsen was removed from office in 1933 by the National Socialist rulers because of his Jewish ancestry. He subsequently worked as a professor in Geneva and Prague, from 1940 at Harvard Law School, and from 1942 at the University of California in Berkeley.
The University of Vienna awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1961 and a monument to Hans Kelsen was unveiled in the Arkadenhof in 1984.
