Research in Legal Theory

Legal Theory emerges at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century in response to a growing skepticism towards legal doctrine. The free law movement and legal realism were among the most salient voices expressing such skepticism. 

Legal Theory explores the foundations of legal knowledge and the special features of law as an object of study. One of the most significant contributions to legal theory is the Viennese School of legal positivism, which was developed by the Hans Kelsen and his disciples. 

This school is still very much alive at the Viennese Institute and complemented with other approaches that claim to have gone beyond legal positivism.