The Marxist interpretation of law : with special reference to property law

Abstract

To grasp what is to come in the following chapters, it would be moot to scan superficially and in a cursory manner the area of study. This will not only help to acquaint the reader with certain topical theses constantly recurring throughout Marx's works, but will also act as an aid to become familiar with Marxist terminology. Furthermore the work as a whole will acquire a homogeneous character. Marx, and more especially Engels, devoted comprehensive studies to primieval societies and primitive communities in which law was still non-existent. They likewise concerned themselves with the first historical manifestation of law in relation to the beginnings of economic development, with the diversified economy, with the system of family production, and also with the early stages of the division of labour and hence with the law of the slave owning society and of feudalism. In connection with this, Marx describes the genesis of law in its present day manifestation i.e. in relation to the exchange of commodities, which gradually comes about with the growth of towns and achieves its full development in the bourgeois world from the 16th century onwards.