Study the Marxian understanding of law and analyze the impact of Marxism on existing legal system and social order especially in context with India.

Authors Avatar

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT

POLITICAL SCIENCE-1

                       MARXISM  AND  LAW

          SUBMITTED BY:

PRANEETH RAMANAVARAPU

I.D.NO 1352

1ST YEAR

I TRIMISTER

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 17th November 2004

NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL OF INDIA UNIVERSITY

Nagarbhavi, Bangalore

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………….3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………………………..4

CHAPTER 1……………………………………………………5

CHAPTER 2……………………………………………………7

CHAPTER 3……………………………………………………14

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………16

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………17

INTRODUCTION

         On 7th October Ramakrishna, alias RK, the general secretary of the Peoples War Group (the largest naxallite group in AP), in his first ever public appearance criticized the Indian Constitution of being a by the Bourgeoisie and for the Bourgeoisie. His criticism of laws started with the blasting of POTA and ended with the criticism of the Indian Penal Code. From the poet Sree Sree to Che Guvera he quoted various celebrated Marxists in support of his criticisms.

        The ideas expressed in the meeting though apparently radical, makes one doubt the purpose all existing laws that are in place not only in India but in any country which claims to be a Democracy. The ideas expressed by these radical Marxists who dismiss all existing laws make anyone wonder the relationship between Marxism and Law.

        Innumerous numbers of questions come to our mind when trying to understand the relationship between Marxism and Law. It would be very inadequate if we just refer to Marx’s writings on law in order to understand this topic. The Marxists jurisprudence has seen tremendous development due to various Marxist thinkers. Similar developments have been seen in the areas of Marxist analysis of crime and deviance which have challenged the our entire understanding of whom the laws serve and who they punish. In order to fully appreciate Marxism and law we should also look at the present day radical Marxists and the problem existing legal order is facing due to these naxallites.

        A thorough analysis of all this issues is essential in understanding Marxism and law. The rising red flags allover the country make an understanding of Marxism and law important not only to maintain the credibility of the existing laws but also as an attempt to look at pressing social and economic issues through their perspective. It is this that the researcher tries to present.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

        

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

        The main aim of this project is to study the Marxian understanding of law and analyze the impact of Marxism on existing legal system and social order especially in context with India.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

        The scope of the topic is undoubtedly very vast. However the researcher had to face certain limitations like time and lack of any prior knowledge in the subject. Nevertheless reasonable ground has been covered in the subject.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The researcher has tried to answer the following questions in the course of the project.

  1. What is the Marxian perspective of law?
  2. How does it effect existing legal order?
  3. What has been its impact on India?

CHAPTERISATION

        The project has been presented in 3 chapters and each of the research question has been analyzed in one chapter.

MODE OF CITATION AND WRITING STYLE

        A uniform mode of citation has been followed throughout the project. The researcher has used both descriptive and analytical style of writing.

SOURCES OF DATA

        Only secondary sources of data in the form of books and journals have been used.

CHAPTER 1

MARX ON LAW

        Marx and Engels wrote a great deal about the nature of law, although not as much as about its relation to the wider society. However as in all areas apart from the economy, they provided little in the way of systematic theory. Of the main points they made two appear to have been the most influential. Both, not surprisingly were very general and therefore have required considerable critical elaboration before anything like an adequate theorization of law’s role in capitalist societies could be developed.

        These two major approaches to the understanding of the law, at least in the class divided societies stand out in Marx’s slender but historic corpus on law. The first grounds the nature of the law in the overall features of a mode of production or the idea that the legal structure and process is determined by the economic structure. The second rests the notion that the law is a tool of the ruling classes, used so as to repress the working classes. The first approach is generally described as the materialist and the second as the instrumentalist theory about law.

        The instrumentalist theory of law is what has been mostly used by Marxist scholars and will be dealt here also. Instrumentalism makes use of the oft quoted statement in the Communist Manifesto which says that the executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie. And the law is clearly an authoritative voice of this committee.

        Here it is often overlooked that the state is not entirely the executive. If we strongly go by the words in the communist manifesto it does not vindicate the judiciary and this was what chief justice of India Hidayatulla also had to say.

        

Modern Legal system

The modern legal system can be perceived to be an instrumentality primarily because it claims for the state the legitimate monopoly of force. Apart from reasonable use of force in self-defense by subjects of the legal order, the legal system always and everywhere seeks to delegitimise and criminalize violence by actors other than those authorized to use violence and provide a normative language which camouflages the core coercion underlying the law.

        The law however is not just a discursive organization of power. Its institutional materiality is embodied in state apparatuses. Human history records not carelessly but in a pattern and often in tragic detail, ways in which the coercive apparatuses of the law stand almost wholly appropriated by the relevant ruling classes.

Join now!

        The relative autonomy of state and law signifies something quite different in a Marxian approach: the state and law are not neutral instrumentalities or centre of pluralist consensus-making. In the capitalist state the autonomy of the political can allow the satisfaction of the economic interests of certain dominated classes, even to the extent of limiting at times their domination. These limits must not adversely affect their overall political power.

The issue of Judiciary        

        The young Marx said, “The law is universal. The case which has to be decided settled in accordance with the law is a particular case. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay