Title

Getting the Constitutive Power of Law Wrong

Authors

Liam McHugh-Russell, Dalhousie University Schulich School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-31-2018

Keywords

Marxist Analysis, Social Relations, Communism, Ideology

Abstract

Marx’s discussions of law have long made jurists anxious. His relegation of law, along with art and philosophy, to the realm of ideology [1], his reference to law as a “mirror” [2], his insistence that “legal relations arise from economic ones” [3]—taken together, these claims not only threaten to unsettle flattering narratives that put lawyers on the side of social progress, but suggest what some would take to be worse: that our work is, in historical terms, irrelevant.

Recommended Citation

Liam McHugh-Russell, "Getting the Constitutive Power of Law Wrong" (31 March 2018), online (blog): Legal Form < https://legalform.blog/2018/03/31/getting-the-constitutive-power-of-law-wrong-liam-mchugh-russell/ > [https://perma.cc/P9DV-HEL8].