Interwar German Theories of International Law: The Psychoanalytical and Phenomenologicial Perspectives of Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt

After 1918, the social foundations of legal positivism and formalism in Central Europe-especially where German was spoken-were shattered. The political neutrality of the legal profession had previously allowed it to equate legality and legitimacy in the form of the monarchical constitution. The breakdown of the traditional order led to a crisis of constitutional legitimacy. Power seemed destined to fall directly into the hands of the "masses" and neither traditional, liberal, nor conservative bourgeois (professional middle-class) opinion was comfortable about this prospect.

There followed a profound debate about the nature of the state and political society.