Grundnorm - Gemeinwille - Geist

Against the backdrop of the question of whether the sovereign state is still the appropriate form for human social existence, Marco Haase addresses the basic questions posed by the philosophy of law and of the state, starting with the epistemological question of what is meant by a social structure such as the state. In answering this question, he shows that the free, autonomous will is the reason that a state's legal system is valid and effective. The study focuses on Hegel's hermeneutic theory of law and the state, delimited on the one hand by Kelsen's positivist theory of law, and on the other by Kant's philosophy of natural law. In his analysis, Haase demonstrates the intrinsic connection between political philosophy and the other branches of philosophy, and the extent to which culture and law are mutually dependent.