ABSTRACT
Marxist jurisprudence stems primarily from the writings of Marx (1818-83), Engels (1820-95) and Lenin (1870-1924), and involves the application of the philosophy of dialectical materialism to a consideration of the nature of society, state and law. The motivating force in history is seen as the class struggle, in which the law and jurisprudence are not neutral. The questions in this chapter concern Marx’s analysis of law in the context of capitalist society, and the contributions of Pashukanis (1891-1937) and Renner (1870-1950), who challenged some of the orthodoxies in classical Marxist jurisprudence.
