The Law of the United Nations

First published under the auspices of The London Institute of World Affairs in1950. With a supplement, Recent Trends in the Law of the United Nations [1951].'[A] number of reasons why this book is bound to appeal to delegates asa source of quotation. One such reason obviously is the internationalreputation of its author, particularly his prestige in European and LatinAmerican countries. Another is the comprehensive and systematiccharacter of the book, which covers almost all of the basic legal problemspresented by the Charter. Most important, perhaps, is the fact thatdelegates - and other readers - are likely to be impressed with thefundamental approach of the book: its close analysis of the structureof rules and their inter-relationships; the eschewing of political andideological considerations; the emphasis on legal duties rather thanpurpose and functions; the awareness of the creative role played bythe law-applying organs. These guiding principles (which are derivedfrom, though not logically dependent on, Kelsen’s pure theory) arewelcome elements in a study of this kind; they promise objectivity,toughmindedness and technical skill, attributes which in a legal treatisewill command more respect than idealism or imagination. For thesereasons, the book may exert a significant influence of developments inthe United Nations.' --Oscar Schachter, 60 Yale Law Journal 1951, 189-190.Possibly the most influential jurisprudent of the twentieth century, HANSKELSEN [1881-1973] was legal adviser to Austria’s last emperor and its firstrepublican government, the founder and permanent advisor of the SupremeConstitutional Court of Austria, and the author of Austria’s Constitution, whichwas enacted in 1920, abolished during the Anschluss, and restored in 1945. He was the author of more than forty books on law and legal philosophy. Active as a teacher in Europe and the United States, he was dean of the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna and taught at the Universities of Cologne and Prague, the Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Harvard, Wellesley, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Naval War College.