ABSTRACT
Each science constructs concrete reality in all its wealth of forms, internal relations and dependencies as the result of a combination of the most simple abstractions. The legal relation is, to use Karl Marx's expression, an abstract, one-sided relation, which is one-sided not as a result of the intellectual labour of a reflective subject, but as the product of social development. The maturity of a social science is determined by the degree of perfection attained in the relevant abstraction. Marx illustrates this in an impressive manner with reference to political economy. He maintains that it would seem quite natural to begin one's analysis with the concrete totality, with the population living and producing in a particular geographical environment. By moving from the most simple to the more complex, from the process in its purest form to its more concrete manifestations, one is following a course which is methodologically more precise and clearer.
