" This new translation of the first edition of Kelsen's Reine Rechtslehre is an inportant event in jurisprudential scholarship. Kelsen's latest published writings indicate how far his thoughts have moved during a long lifetime from earlier stated positions. But we have not had in English a really good translation of Kelsen's earlier thoughts on legal theory. Now Bonnie and Stanley Paulson have produced a superb and stylish translation, which reveals the true quality of Kelsen's starting point, in many ways so much moreplausible than his last thoughts."