Georg Fayer · Public domain

Kelsen developed the "pure theory of law," an attempt to describe legal systems on their own terms, independent of morality or politics, that became one of the twentieth century's most influential legal philosophies. He put the theory into practice as principal architect of Austria's 1920 constitution, which, amended, remains in force today. Forced out of Austria and then Germany by the rise of totalitarianism, he settled in the United States, where — despite Roscoe Pound calling him the era's leading jurist — he never received the academic post his standing in Europe would have guaranteed him.