In this chapter it is argued that law cannot be defined by the sanctionability of its norms. According to Stephan Kirste’s view, legal sanctions are legal consequences for the violation of primary legal obligations. According to him, sanctions presuppose that someone has violated a legally valid and therefore binding obligation and must take into account further jurisdictional, procedural and substantive requirements for their application. This understanding of sanctions is based on the concept of a norm, which is neither a mere description of facts nor merely coercion, but directed at the freedom of the norm’s addressee to act or to refrain from acting and presents an alternative course of action as an obligation.