The Significance of Pure Theory of Law for Ethicalization of Law

Abstract

The current article is dedicated to the significance of the Pure Theory of Law for current legal thinking. This question will be viewed from an unusual perspective, aiming to reveal the efforts of biomedical practices and technologies with regard to the legal regulation. In the current legal science several theoretical attempts are made to deal with the transmission and transformation of non-legal (moral) standards into law. As an example, the author would like to point out the project called „Ethicalization of law“, developed in the last years by German and American legal scholars. The following article is divided into three parts. The first part contains a brief introduction of the initial methodological starting points of the ethicalization of law. The second part provides discussion of some of the methodological (legal-dogmatic) weaknesses of the legal regulations in the area of biomedical practices and technologies, while the final part shows that the Kelsen´s principle of purity can be a useful doctrinal basis for the ongoing attempts dedicated to the ethical transformation of law.