A TEORIA PURA DO DIREITO NÃO É UMA TEORIA DO DIRIETO PURO

Abstract

The essay intends to investigate one of the central elements of the Pure Theory of Law (PTL): the purity, to clarify that the Kelsenian endeavor was never about an attempt to purify Law. To do so, based on a bibliographical analysis, at first some general aspects of the PTL are introduced. After that, it seeks to demonstrate, through the study of Kelsen's work and its commentators, that the PTL never intended to purify the Law. It was possible to conclude that the PTL is a self-limiting theory and that it should be provoked about what it intended to answer. Although one of the most influential ones, in the end it is more of one theory about law, which has received and still receives some unfair criticisms - and also some very coherent ones. In any case, the PTL cannot be ignored, much less be taken for its “false image”. Describing Law as it is – after all, the purpose of this theory – can be crucial to understanding how Law actually is, no more and no less, that is, without it being described as more or less rational and more or less fair.