ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the elements of a theory of and methodology for the ideological analysis of law. It argues that work focusing upon the ideological character of law realizes significant advances over that produced by the more orthodox approaches within the sociology of law and jurisprudence employing normative analysis. The chapter identifies problems and difficulties manifest in the ideological analysis in critical and Marxist texts. The concept of ideology has played a key role for Marxist theorists who make up the Western Marxist tradition that has sought to liberate Marxism from the ossification of orthodox Marxism-Leninism. The application of the concept "ideology" to the analysis of law has been one of the distinctive features of the strand of critical legal studies that draws upon the Marxist tradition. A major but insufficiently recognized thrust of the Althusserian tradition was to develop a theory that could at once accommodate the traditional socio-economic concerns of Marxism and a concern for human subjectivity.
