ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to recover the law's part in the emergence of communism and at reconstructing an obscure jurisprudence written at the interface of theory and practise. It discusses the historical inscription of Marx's work, and intends to maintain the possibility of fragile but present unity of Marxism. Marx's understanding of the relation between law and nature is illustrated by exposing the secret nexus between the fallen branches of the trees and the poor: His criticism should be understood as still being part of the Hegelian project, as an immanent critique of the philosophy of law and the state, and perhaps as a sublation of Hegel's understanding of law in relation to the 'ethical life'. It should be perhaps reinscribed within its proper place, which is that of a history of law and legal thought, and perceived less than an external criticism which incidentally can teach us something about what we traditionally consider to be our object of inquiry.
