The Law To Know

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Critical and social movements

Marxist Legal Theory

Law belongs to a superstructure that reflects who owns the means of production.

19th and 20th centuries · Germany and Russia, then worldwide. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.

Read this first. This is a first map of a large subject. Each school is a family of views, and its thinkers often disagree with one another, so every summary simplifies. We describe each school in terms its own followers would accept and give the strongest criticism beside it. Read the original works before you cite anyone, and check your own course's reading list. This is general information, not legal advice.

What is law?

Law is shaped by the economic base: it protects property and the interests of the ruling class, though it also contains real concessions. Pashukanis argued that the legal form itself mirrors commodity exchange.

Law and morality

Moral claims in law express class interests. Real emancipation would make law, as a separate sphere, wither away.

Where does its authority come from?

Class power and the economic order.

How should judges decide?

Look at whose property and interests a rule protects.

The question it asks

Does law serve the ruling class?

Main criticism

Too economic, and the experience of socialist states shows law can become a tool of the state. It is hard to square with rule-of-law values.

Legacy today

Critical legal studies, labour law theory and historical studies of property.

Key thinkers

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Karl Renner, Evgeny Pashukanis, E.P. Thompson.

Key works

  • Renner, The Institutions of Private Law and Their Social Functions (1904)
  • Pashukanis, The General Theory of Law and Marxism (1924)
  • Thompson, Whigs and Hunters (1975)

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Read further

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: philosophy of law (an overview). For the exact arguments, go to the original works above.

TheLawToKnow Tools’s guide to schools of legal thought is an educational overview. It is not legal advice. Report a mistake.