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Kelsen's "General Theory of Norms"

In its factual sense, Kelsen proposes that "law is an order of human behaviour". By drawing similarities between order, customs and etiquette, Kelsen suggests that the highly factual nature of law renders it an empirical phenomenon. Law is thus defined as both a social technique that coerces those who are subject to it into a system of rules of behaviour, while order constitutes an expansive system of norms that are derived from and validated by the same reason. An individual can thus determine whether a norm belongs to a normative system by ascertaining that it derives validity from the basic norm constituting the order. In its normative sense, laws are defined as "what ought to be done if something should be the case". Kelsen proposes that the normative statement, "it is a rule", can only have sense in the context of regular behaviour combined with a reflective, critical attitude by the population. In adopting this perspective, Kelsen ignores the specific "internal" dimension conditioning the meaning of normative utterances that are related to human values and morality.