MARXISM ESSAY
UMAR SIPRA
This paper elucidates and supports the Marxian claim that law will ‘wither away’
in the socialist society, a thesis developed by Marx and Engels. Marxist theories of
law involve a materialist view of social life in which law and the state (the
superstructure) are subordinate to the dominant modes of production
throughout human history. In capitalism where the law values private property,
the state becomes the “executive body of the bourgeoisie,” which uses the law to
uphold their private interests. As Marx believes the social relations of production
under this superstructure are exploitative and inherently instable, human society
will progress to socialism and eventually communism, where the ruling class is the
proletariat, and where legal institutions that protect private property and private
interests have no place in society.
To develop this essay, I start by discussing the Marxist view of the state and the
law as an instrument of the ruling class, which is based on protecting the private
interests of the bourgeoisie. I then examine how this view of the state and the
law in a socialist society is inherently incompatible. These concepts are further
supported by Marx’s “Debate on Wood-Theft Laws.” Several criticisms will also be
addressed to point out the empirical shortcomings of the Marxist approach. In
doing so, I argue that because Marxist theories of the law in a socialist society
yield insights into the complex social relationships through which human beings
produce and reproduce their social relations, conceptually, they convincingly
explain why the law should wither away in a socialist society. However, while the
Marxist approach may be conceptually compelling, legal institutions must still
have a place in a socialist society and therefore do not completely wither away.
Socialism is defined as a social organization whereby the means of production,
distribution, and exchange is primarily owned or regulated collectively by the
community as a whole. Though there are several variants within the Marxist
paradigm, there is a general consensus that jurisprudence ceases to exist in a
socialist society. Socialism aims to entail an equal distribution of wealth to the
community by removing private property ownership and the exploitative ruling
class. This view is derived from Marx’s evolutionary theory of human history,
which marks its end with communism; a classless society in which the state would
be nothing more than the revolutionary dictatorship of the working class. As man
evolves throughout history, laws evolve with it, and thus there are no legal
absolutes, no eternal lawgiver, and no eternal legal principles.
A good starting point to analyze the Marxist approach to law is to examine the
instrumentalist view of the law under capitalism. For Marxists, the law as we
know it today can be traced to the concept of private property, which
distinguishes society between the owners (bourgeoisie) and the non-owners
(proletariat). The former is essentially the capitalist ruling class that owns the
means of production, and latter is the working class that must sell their labor to
the capitalists for subsistence.
For Marx, the state is the none other than an ‘executive committee’ of the
bourgeoisie, the laws become the instrument by which one class rules another for
their private interests. As legal regulations are deliberated through the state, the
law is essentially devised by the propertied class to protect its property. Marxists
refer to this as bourgeois law, which are all considered unjust because it “stifles
the proletariat’s evolutionary destiny.” As Marx notes, “the will of your
(bourgeoisie) jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into law for all.”
