This essay is a reflection on the “origin of law” concept in a reinterpretation that starts from Kelsen’s return to the neo-Kantian philosophical tradition (especially Hermann Cohen). The aim of this essay is to show how the problem of origin (Ursprung) enables us to reassess the traditional distinction between law and the question regarding what is legal, quid ius and quid iuris, and to redefine it in terms of the difference between law and its fact, the ought-to-being and its own (...) being. (shrink)