Basic norm

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'Basic norm' (German: Grundnorm) is a concept in the Pure Theory of Law created by Hans Kelsen, a jurist and legal philosopher. Kelsen used this word to denote the basic norm, order, or rule that forms an underlying basis for a legal system. The theory is based on a need to find a point of origin for all law, on which basic law and the constitution can gain their legitimacy (akin to the concept of first principles). This basic norm, however, is often described as hypothetical. Reaction to the term has fallen into three broad areas including (i) Kelsen's original introduction of the term, (ii) the Neo-Kantian reception of the term by Kelsen's critics and followers, and (iii) the hypothetical and symbolic use of the term through the history of its application. Regarding Kelsen's original use of the term, its closest antecedent appears in writings of his colleague Adolf Merkl at the University of Vienna. Merkl was developing a structural research approach for the understanding of law as a matter of the hierarchical relationship of norms, largely on the basis of their being either superior or inferior to each other. Kelsen adapted and assimilated much of Merkl's approach into his own presentation of the Pure Theory of Law in both its original version and its revised version. For Kelsen, the importance of the basic norm was in large measure twofold since it importantly indicated the logical recursion of superior relationships between norms as they led to the norm that ultimately would have no other norm to which it was inferior. Its second feature was that it represented the importance that Kelsen associated with the concept of a fully centralized legal order in contrast to the existence of decentralized forms of government and legal orders.