ISTVÁN LOSONCZY (1908-1980) as a doctor iuris sub auspiciis gubernatoris was appointed to become the professorial director of Institutum philosophiae iuris at the Royal Hungarian Elizabeth University at Pécs in the fall of 1940. After the communist take-over in 1948, for political reasons he had to move to the chair of criminal law which he held for nearly a quarter of a century. Both his early paper ("Über die Möglichkeit der Wissenschaftscharakter der Rechtswissenschaft", 1937) and first magisterial book (A funkcionális fogalomalkotás lehetősége a jogtudományban [On the availability of functional conceptualization in jurisprudence], 1941) already signaled his claim for realism upon a new-KANTian methodological basis. It is in his last year of teaching philosophy of law that he arrived at drafting his view on the subject in form of lectures (Jogfilozófiai előadások vázlata, 1948). Upon the invitation of Professor Verdross, then also editor-in-chief of the Kelsenian Vienna School's Österreichische Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht, he summarized - albeit the falling of the iron curtain already banned him to mail - his clear argument under the title "Abriss eines realistischen rechtsphilopophoschen Systems [Outlines of a realist system of legal philosophy]". Its edited version is posthumously reproduced here from the author's corrected manuscript in German. Enclosed herewith in annex (in a photocopied form) is also his aforementioned paper (1937) on the possibility and scientific character of jurisprudence.
His challenging Rechtswissenschaftslehre is followed by his philosophical (i.e., ontological, logical, normative) and axiological investigation into the nature of law. A hitherto unknown professional orientation reveals itself in the book: conceptual development and analysis of foundational issues once criticized by Marxism as "neo-Thomistic universalism" (IMRE SZABÓ) in search for "a synthesis transcending both idealism and realism" (Mihály Szotáczky). Its present-day timeliness lies first of all in the topic's development differentiated according to various ontological levels (spheres) of being and in the author's claim of modern worldview as patterned bí natural science. Losonczy's curriculum vitae and bibliography and index of names offer a framework of the book.