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Marx, Karl

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Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy

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Introduction

Marx’s (1818–1883) contribution to the disciplines of law and social philosophy will be considered. Marx’s work was very popular in the period after the Second World War, especially from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. Marxist philosophy, in both its structuralist and Hegelian manifestations, flourished in universities in this period, with the work of the structural Marxist Althusser (1969), the translation of Gramsci’s (1971) work on the state and hegemony and the contributions of Lukács (1971) and writers from the Frankfurt School influenced by Hegel (Habermas 1974). Marx’s work was very influential in sociology, economics, and cultural studies. Socio-legal studies and radical criminology also drew from Marx’s work in analyzing crime and punishment, while Marxian analyses of ideology, inequality, and oppression were extended to new areas beyond class oppression, principally race and gender.

However, Marxism’s popularity declined in the late 1980s and 1990s, during the period...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Ssenyonjo (2016).

  2. 2.

    See Scalia (2002).

  3. 3.

    See, for example, Neal v MDOC, Case No. 96–6986 Cz. which was settled in 2009 and Salem v MDOC, Case No. 13–14,567 (1 May 2015) and Easton (2011).

  4. 4.

    See for example, Dworkin (1976, 1986).

  5. 5.

    For a reflection on the relationship between CLS and Marxism see Rasulov (2014).

  6. 6.

    See Wilkinson and Pickett (2009).

  7. 7.

    See, for example, Hudson (1998), Piper (2007) and Easton (2008).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brunel Law School, Brunel University, London, UK

    Susan Easton

Authors
  1. Susan Easton
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Correspondence to Susan Easton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Regents Professor of the University, System of Maryland and Director of the University of Baltimore Center for International and Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, USA

    Mortimer Sellers

  2. Professor for Legal and Social Philosophy, Department of Legal Theory International and European Law, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Stephan Kirste

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Law, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Gianfrancesco Zanetti

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Easton, S. (2023). Marx, Karl. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6519-1_630

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