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Legal Theory in the Collapse of Weimar: Contemporary Lessons?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

David Dyzenhaus
David Dyzenhaus*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

The Weimar Republic is frequently invoked in political theory as an example when the issue is the appropriate response of liberal democracies to internal, fundamental challenges. I explore that example through the lens of a 1932 court case that tested the legality of the federal government's “coup” against Prussia. In my analysis of the court's judgment and of the arguments of three political and public law theorists, Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, and Hermann Heller, I argue for Heller's democratic vision of the rule of law. In my conclusion, I compare problems in Kelsen's position with problems in the recently articulated position of John Rawls in order to suggest what lessons Weimar may have for contemporary political theory.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 91 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 121 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1997

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References

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