Book, Autobiography of Hans Kelsen 5/18[LS]

The Autobiography of Hans Kelsen, the greatest jurist of the 20th century, is a unique opportunity for the Portuguese-speaking reader to get to know this legal philosopher intimately and understand the genesis of his thought. With this book, access is given not to a biography, but to the Autobiography of Hans Kelsen, accompanied by rich explanatory notes by Matthias Jestaedt and the Hans Kelsen-Institut. The structure of the text is pleasant and manages to keep the reader interested in the narrative, even those who are not fond of legal language. The beauty of Hans Kelsen's style, inspired by the more “Latin” way in which the Austrians write the German language, and the quality of the exquisite translation confirm this judgment about the literary merits of the book, now published by the century-old Editora Forense, through University Forensic seal. Getting to know this giant in the world of Law is a most exciting intellectual challenge for any student of the Human Sciences. The life of Hans Kelsen is practically unknown to many who use his ideas, his writings and those who are influenced by his way of thinking about Law. Jewish origins, Kelsen's experience in the last Cabinet of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his participation in the attempts to save the Monarchy, despite the disaster of the First World War, intellectual production, the creation of the Austrian Constitutional Court and the birth of jurisdiction constitutional, the experience in Cologne, Prague and Berlin and the flight to the United States are part of the narrative, which, in many moments, resembles a soap opera. Vivid emotions and the taste of discovering in which context fundamental works such as the Pure Theory of Law and the General Theory of Law and the State emerged are elements that make the book now offered to the Portuguese-speaking reader unique. The main characters and the most relevant historical facts are contextualized by abundant notes. In addition to the Introduction, by Matthias Jestaedt, a great contemporary specialist in the work of Hans Kelsen, the Autobiography is accompanied by an extensive introductory study, prepared by José Antonio Dias Toffoli and Otavio Luiz Rodrigues Junior, with various historical and legal information about each era experienced by Hans Kelsen and the theoretical production of the respective periods, transposing several issues, which are addressed in the autobiographical text, to the modern Brazilian reality. The Autobiography of Hans Kelsen inaugurates the “Paulo Bonavides Collection”, dedicated to the publication of translations of contemporary classics of Law and related Sciences, as well as works of great scientific importance, covering readers from different backgrounds and varying areas of technical and literary interest .