This book investigates one of the oldest questions of legal philosophy---the relationship between law and legitimacy. It analyses the legal theories of three eminent public lawyers of the Weimar era, Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, and Hermann Heller. Their theories addressed the problems of legal and political order in a crisis-ridden modern society and so they remain highly relevant to contemporary debates about legal order in the age of pluralism. Schmitt, the philosopher of German fascism, has recently received much attention. Kelsen is well-known as one of the main exponents of the philosophy of legal positivism. Heller is virtually unknown outside Germany. Dyzenhaus exposes the dangers of Schmitt's legal philosophy by situating it in the legal context of constitutional crisis to which he responded. He also points out the severs inadequacies of Kelsen's legal positivism. In a wide-ranging account of the predicaments of contemporary legal and political philosophy, Heller's position is argued to be the most promising of the three.

作者简介：

大卫·戴岑豪斯（David Dyzenhaus） 加拿大多伦多大学法学院法律与哲学教授，加拿大皇家学会（The Royal Society of Canada，RSC）会员，牛津大学哲学博士。

译者简介：

刘毅 ，字春泽，北京理工大学法学院副教授，法学博士，北京大学法学院博士后，德国法兰克福大学访问学者。