The Pure Legal Theory of H. Kelsen and Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence by A. Ehrenzweig: Points of Convergence

The article touches upon the issue of “points of contact” between two different approaches to the study of legal problems – the pure legal theory developed by H. Kelsen and psychoanalytic jurisprudence proposed by A. Ehrenzweig. Based on the analysis of biographies of scientists, the thesis is substantiated that an important incentive for the reversal of Ehrenzweig’s scientific interests towards the philosophy of law and for his attempt to bring theoretical constructions of psychoanalysis into this sphere was the desire to support H. Kelsen (his colleague at the University of California Berkeley), whose approach to understanding law met with a very cold reception in the USA. Based on a number of ideas expressed by H. Kelsen about justice, A. Ehrenzweig made the object of his research a sense of justice, which he considered from the standpoint of Freudian psychoanal-ysis. Despite the fact that the scientist has set himself an impossible task, trying to show how exactly by study-ing the sense of justice it is possible to remove the sharpness of contradictions between philosophical and le-gal doctrines, the direction of comprehension of law proposed by him seems important and relevant for mod-ern jurisprudence. Therefore, this approach will allow to take into account more fully the multidimensionality of the human being as a legal subject.