Marxist Law is Legal Positivism

QUESTION: Marxist Law is Legal Positivism

ANSWER:

An elastic legal system is consistent with the Marxist view of human evolution. Humans are constantly evolving; law is based on the will of the proletariat; therefore law is also constantly changing. Marxist laws and human rights are arbitrary, based on the will of the ruling class, the proletariat. Jawitsch describes law in a Marxist society this way: “As a component of the legal superstructure law is closely linked with the political superstructure and with the state.”¹ Lenin agrees, saying, “A court is an organ of state power. Liberals sometimes forget that. It is a sin for a Marxist to forget it.”² Courts, in other words, determine and dispense justice through thwill of the ruling class, the state.

Marxist Law – Positive Law
Any system of law based on the will of those in power—the state—is legal positivism. Marxists, however, do not recognize or admit that their approach to law is from a legal positivist perspective.

Notes:

Rendered with permission from the book,Understanding the Times: The Collision of Today’s Competing Worldviews(Rev. 2^nd ed), David Noebel, Summit Press, 2006. Compliments of John Stonestreet, David Noebel, and the Christian Worldview Ministry at Summit Ministries. All rights reserved in the original.

¹ L.S. Jawitsch, The General Theory of Law (Moscow, USSR: Progress Publishers, 1981), 290.
² Lenin, Collected Works, 25:155. Cited in John Hazard, Settling Disputes in Soviet Society (New York, NY: Columbia University, 1960), 3.