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The Place of Law in the Marxian Structure-Superstructure Archetype

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

Alan Stone
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Abstract

Law occupies a critical place in a Marxist theory of society. Yet Marx and Engels did not provide a coherent and detailed discussion of law. Subsequent writers in the Marxist tradition have either developed simplistic versions of the unsustainable thesis that the capitalist class dominates the legal apparatus in a capitalist society, or they have virtually abandoned Marxism as a framework for analysis of the law. This paper examines leading texts of Marx and Engels and employs them to provide the outlines of a plausible Marxist theory of law that can embrace the rich complexity of legal activity in a modern capitalist society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , 1985 , pp. 39 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by The Law and Society Association

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Footnotes

*

I want to thank Richard Lempert, the Law & Society Review's anonymous reviewers, my colleagues Bob Carp and Tom Dumm, Josh Cohen (M.I.T.) and, especially, Joel Rogers (Rutgers) for their invaluable criticisms and suggestions.

References

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