MARXIST THEORY OF LAW

Christian Arbiol

Andrei Maghirang

John Cedric Comon

Ralph Deiparine
Introduction

Karl Marx views the notion of Marxist Law from the following perspective, “Law, morality, religion, are
to [the proletariat] so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois
interests.”

The assumptions basic to Marxist legal theory—first, that God does not exist; and second, that humans
are evolving animals—deny both the possibility of an absolute moral code and the existence of any law
grounded in any authority other than human authority. V. I. Lenin says, “In what sense do we repudiate
ethics and morality? ...In the sense in which it was preached by the bourgeoisie, who derived ethics from
God’s commandments. We, of course, say that we do not believe in God.”

L.S. Jawitsch, a modern-day Marxist legal theorist, maintains Lenin’s denial of anything supernatural,
saying, “There are no eternal, immutable principles of law.” Therefore, Marxist law cannot be based on
anything other than human rationality. In Lenin’s words, “We repudiate all morality taken apart from
human society and classes.”

Basic Information on Karl Marx

Karl Marx was a philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist. Born in
Prussia, he later became stateless and spent much of his life in London. Marx's work in economics laid
the basis for much of the current understanding of labor and its relation to capital, and subsequent
economic thought. He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being The
Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867–1894).

Born into a wealthy middle-class family in Trier in the Prussian Rhineland, Marx studied at the
universities of Bonn and Berlin where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young
Hegelians (a group of radical German intellectuals). After his studies he wrote for the Rheinische
Zeitung, a radical newspaper in Cologne, and began to work out the theory of the materialist conception
of history. He moved to Paris in 1843, where he began writing for other radical newspapers and met
Friedrich Engels, who would become his lifelong friend and collaborator. In 1849 he was exiled and
moved to London together with his wife and children, where he continued writing and formulating his
theories about social and economic activity. He also campaigned for socialism and became a significant
figure in the International Workingmen's Association.

Marx's theories about society, economics and politics—the collective understanding of which is known
as Marxism—hold that human societies progress through class struggle: a conflict between an
ownership class that controls production and a dispossessed laboring class that provides the labor for
production. States, Marx believed, were run on behalf of the ruling class and in their interest while
representing it as the common interest of all; and he predicted that, like previous socioeconomic
systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement
by a new system: socialism. He argued that class antagonisms under capitalism between the bourgeoisie
and proletariat would eventuate in the working class' conquest of political power and eventually
establish a classless society, communism, a society governed by a free association of producers. Marx
actively fought for its implementation, arguing that the working class should carry out organized
revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic change.

Marxist Law – The Origin of Law

Marxists explain that law and human rights arise from the interactions of human beings within social
structures that contain economic class distinctions. Class divisions within societies create conflict and
disorder and therefore law (and the state) comes into existence to deal with this conflict. According to
TCM co-author Friedrich Engels, “In order that these...classes with conflicting economic interests, may
not annihilate themselves and society in a useless struggle, a power becomes necessary that stands
apparently above society and has the function of keeping down the conflicts and maintaining ‘order.’
And this power, the outgrowth of society, but assuming supremacy over it and becoming more and more
divorced from it, is the State.”

The State that rises to maintain order within society perpetuates the conflict as a dominant class
wielding power over classes with less power. Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin explains, “The State is an
organ of class domination, an organ of oppression of one class by another; its aim is the creation of
‘order’ which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression by moderating the collisions between the
classes.” Laws are thus imposed by the state to quell these disturbances.

Once the revolution of the proletariat has succeeded, the new Marxist Law (Socialistic Law) will reflect
the desires of the working people rather than those of the bourgeoisie. Law based on the will of the
proletariat will create a society that is less exploitative than that based on capitalist bourgeois law.
According to theorist L.S. Jawitsch, “An anti-exploiter tendency is what characterizes the special features
of all the principles of the law of socialist society in most concentrated form.”

The will of the proletariat becomes the basis for all rights, laws, and judgments, thereby negating
natural law, God, or any absolute moral code. Marxist philosopher Howard Selsam explains, “Marxism,
which has been so often accused of seeking to eliminate moral considerations from human life and
history emphasizes rather the moral issues involved in every situation. It does so, however, not by
standing on a false platform of absolute right, but by identifying itself with the real needs and interests
of the workers and farmers.”

Marxists see law based on the will of the proletariat as flexible rather than inconsistent, a flexibility that
denies a need for a comprehensive legal system. E.B. Pashukanis writes, “We require that our legislation
possess maximum elasticity. We cannot fetter ourselves by any sort of system.”
Marxist Law- Law Withers Away

Marxists believe law arises from class conflicts caused by property; the need for law itself will dissolve
once a communist society is established. Since only one class (the proletariat) will then exist, the need to
promote order between classes will no longer remain—in effect law will have become unnecessary.

In the highest stage of communist society, after the subordination to the division of labor, which makes
man a slave, shall have disappeared, and therewith the contrast between intellectual labor and physical
labor; when labor shall have ceased to be merely a means of sustaining life and shall have itself become
the first demand of life; when the comprehensive development of individuals shall have been
accompanied by a growth of the production forces also and the springs of social wealth shall pour forth
a full flow—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois law be completely overcome, and only then
will society inscribe on its banner; each according to his capacities, and to each according to his needs.

Communist society is the highest phase of the development of human society. Increased production
forces create such an abundance of products as permits the complete assurance of all the requirements
of all the members of society. Class disappearances finally disappear. Marxists believe that when classes
are abolished, all people will create and live in an environment that promotes harmony. Criminal activity
will be almost nonexistent since the catalysts for anti-social activity—injustice and inequality—will no
longer exist. Plamenatz says that in a communist society crime will be “virtually unknown” because
“motives will be less urgent and frequent, and the offender will be more easily brought to his senses by
the need to regain the good opinion of his neighbors.

The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto was one of the important documents that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
published. He became well known because of this work. In this document, Marx states that the law of
Bourgeois was only a mere reflection of the greed of that class. He said that “[Y]our jurisprudence is but
the will of your class made into a law for all, a will, whose essential character and direction are
determined by the economic conditions of existence of your class.” He was critical with the Bourgeois
Law which he believes was very oppressive as it was based on the privatization of property. The nature
of the law itself was for the promotion of unequal rights.

“A will, whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of
existence of your class … The selfish misconception that induces you to transform into eternal
laws of nature and of reason, the social forms springing from your present mode of production
and form of property—this misconception you share with every ruling class that has preceded
you.”
The law being favorable to one class, specifically the capitalists, led to the development of a Capitalist
Society in which the society itself is more accountable for the lawlessness, rather than the individual
citizens. According to Engels “The contempt for the existing social order is most conspicuous in its
extreme form -- that of offences against the law.” In other words, those who commit crimes do not feel
any sense of remorse for their actions because they feel as though they have no other choice but to
revolt. The solution, according to Marx and Engels, is to allow the working class to make the laws. In
order to achieve such an objective, the proletarians are justified in breaking capitalistic law because they
are acting in order to achieve equality.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Karl Marx believes that law originated from conflict between the Bourgeoisie and the
Proletariat; that the State, ostensibly to promulgate and enforce laws, become the promoter of conflict
between the two major social classes; and in order to achieve the Socialist-Communist society, the
Proletariat must initiate a violent revolution in order to shift the balance of power from the minority
Bourgeoisie to the majority Proletariat, and that once it is achieved, the new Communist society will
promulgate laws based on the will of the Proletariat, and at the zenith of its existence, the use of law
itself will be dispensed of since there will be no more class divisions and people at that point will live in
total peace, harmony and equality, free from any form of criminality.

REFERENCES:

http://www.allaboutworldview.org/marxist-law.htm

http://www.marktolentinolaw.com/legal-blog/marxist-jurisprudence

http://www.younglaw.net/articlesmarx/law.pdf