DOCSLIB.ORG

Evgeny Pashukanis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Evgeny Pashukanis Evgeny Pashukanis A Critical Reappraisal Interest in the best-known Soviet legal scholar, Evgeny Pashukanis, today remains widespread. But how and why did Pashukanis emerge as the pre- eminent Soviet jurist from 1924 to 1930, come under only minor criticism from 1930 to 1936, and then be denounced and executed in 1937 as a ‘Trotskyite saboteur’? And why have many Western scholars generally praised the quality and originality of Pashukanis’ work, yet also drawn the conclu- sion that his fate illustrates the intrinsic impossibility of the entire communist project? Answering these questions through a thorough examination of Pashukanis’ relationship to the Stalinist regime, Head shows how Pashukanis’ writings provide a rich source of material on the Marxist theory of law and the state, as well as attempts to apply that theory in Soviet Russia. It is, he argues, in a proper assessment of the historical and political context of Pashukanis’ work that the striking contemporary relevance of his Marxist legal theory is revealed; particularly in view of the universal assault on civil liberties in the indefinite war on terror and the constant escalation of ‘law and order’ measures in Western societies. Dr Michael Head is Associate Professor in the Law School at the University of Western Sydney. Nomikoi: Critical Legal Thinkers, edited by Peter Goodrich and David Seymour. Nomikoi: Critical Legal Thinkers Series editors: Peter Goodrich Cardozo School of Law, New York David Seymour Lancaster University, UK Nomikoi: Critical Legal Thinkers presents analyses of key critical theorists whose thinking on law has contributed significantly to the development of the new interdisciplinary legal studies. Addressing those who have most influ- enced legal thought and thought about law, the aim of the series is to bring legal scholarship, the social sciences and the humanities into closer dialogue. Other titles in the Series Judith Butler: Ethics, Law, Politics, Elena Loizidou Evgeny Pashukanis A critical reappraisal Michael Head First published 2008 by Routledge-Cavendish Published 2014 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis, an informa business © 2008 Michael Head Typeset in Times and Gill Sans by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Head, Michael, LL. B. Evgeny Pashukanis : a critical reappraisal / Michael Head. p. cm. “Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada.” Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978–1–904385–76–9 (hardback : alk. paper) – ISBN 978–1– 904385–75–2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Law and socialism. 2. Sociological jurisprudence. 3. Law–Soviet Union–Philosophy–History. 4. Pashukanis, Evgenii Bronislavovich, 1891–1938? 5. Law teachers– Soviet Union–Biography. I. Title. K357.H43 2007 340′.115–dc22 2007003289 ISBN 978–1–904–38576–9 (hbk) ISBN 978–1–904–38575–2 (pbk) ISBN 978–0–203–94526–1 (ebk) Contents Preface ix 1 Why Pashukanis? 1 The challenge of early Soviet jurisprudence 4 Is communism really dead? 6 Towards a new assessment of Pashukanis 8 How the early debates evolved 13 2 The Marxist view of law: socialism and democracy 17 The neglected Marxist heritage 17 Fundamental conceptions 19 Essential propositions 22 3 The Russian Marxists and law 41 George Plekhanov’s contribution 41 Lenin and law 43 Leon Trotsky’s observations 58 4 The dynamics of the Russian Revolution 67 The mass character of the Russian Revolution 67 The physiognomy of the Russian Revolution: permanent revolution 72 The roots of the degeneration 78 The NEP and the emergence of the Stalinist layer 82 The Left Opposition 86 vi Contents 5 Bolshevik ‘law’ in practice 91 Lagging behind events 91 Educative decrees 93 The establishment of Soviet power 95 ‘War Communism’ 99 The New Economic Policy 102 Stalinist ‘legality’ 107 6 The passionate legal debates of early Soviet Russia: 1917–24 111 1917–21: From revolution to civil war 115 1921–24: The impact of the NEP 119 Stuchka and Pashukanis 124 7 From debates to diatribes: 1924–37 131 1924–27: The final period of genuine debate 131 1927–37: From debates to diatribes 147 Conclusion 151 8 Evgeny Pashukanis and Stalinism: the rise and fall of a Soviet jurist 153 Pashukanis and the shifts in Soviet policy 157 Pashukanis’ demise 160 Conclusion 167 9 Pashukanis’ theoretical achievements 169 Critique of legal form 170 The ‘commodity exchange’ theory 177 Law versus regulation and planning 181 The withering away of law (against ‘proletarian law’) 183 ‘Crime’, ‘guilt’ and ‘punishment’ 184 Law and morality 186 Ideology and legal theory 189 10 Was there an alternative? Pashukanis and the Opposition 193 From democracy to repression 195 The analysis of the Left and Joint Oppositions 197 Contents vii 11 Pashukanis and Western theorists 205 Traditional assessments 207 ‘Left-wing’ criticisms 211 Alan Hunt 222 Hugh Collins 226 12 Is Pashukanis still relevant? 231 Pashukanis and the assault on civil liberties 232 ‘Crime’ and ‘punishment’ 240 Law and regulation 246 Marxism and Stalinism 249 Bibliography 253 Index 263 This page intentionally left blank Preface My interest in Evgeny Pashukanis goes back to my university student days in the early 1970s. It was a period of considerable political tumult and ferment internationally – from the May–June 1968 general strike in France and the Soviet suppression of the ‘Czechoslovakian Spring’ later that year, to the massive movements against the Vietnam War, the ousting of Richard Nixon and the downfall of the dictatorships in Spain, Portugal and Greece. Once I became acquainted with Marxism and the writings of Leon Trotsky, it was natural that, as a law student, I turned my attention to what had happened to the promise of the 1917 Soviet revolution, including in the field of law. I soon discovered considerable confusion surrounding the various attempts that were being made, mostly by ‘left-wing’ academics, to present Pashukanis as an enlightened alternative to Stalinism. This seemed incongruous because Pashukanis had risen to become one of the most prom- inent legal theorists after Stalin’s victory over the Left Opposition in 1924. I was not able to pursue my intellectual curiosity, however, until my partial return to academic life in 1999, when I began teaching at the University of Western Sydney and launched into a PhD thesis on ‘Marxism, revolution and law: the experience of early Soviet Russia’. Finally, the Glasshouse Press series ‘Nomikoi: Critical Legal Thinkers’ gave me the opportunity to transform part of my thesis into a reassessment of Pashukanis. To my mind, the issues raised by the Soviet revolution and its pre-Stalinist achievements remain critical for the future of human civilisation. Far from being rendered redundant by the ultimate collapse of the thoroughly degenerated Soviet state in 1991, the principles that guided the early Soviet leaders and theorists have become all the more relevant following the disinte- gration of the Kremlin regime that many falsely called communist. In today’s world of revived militarism, worsening inequality and intense popular dis- satisfaction with the prevailing ‘free market’ agenda of global capitalism, nothing is more important than clearing up the widely misunderstood histor- ical record of what went wrong in the Soviet Union. I hope this volume makes at least a small contribution to that task. This is largely a work of analysis, not original research. It is based on x Preface the published anthologies and translations into English of the writings of Pashukanis and other early Soviet legal scholars. These materials are adequate for an overall assessment, but a more complete picture may emerge from future publications and translations of wider ranges of documents. In particular, this may be so with regard to the role of the Left and Joint Oppositions of 1923–27, and the complex interrelationship between their political challenges to the Kremlin leadership and the ongoing legal and jurisprudential debates. Hopefully, indeed, this volume may encourage other scholars, including Russian historians and legal theorists, to more fully explore the issues raised. My thanks go to my students and colleagues in the Law School at the University of Western Sydney for their encouragement and interest. Over successive years, I have been repeatedly stimulated intellectually by the com- ments and suggestions of students in my Jurisprudence and Law Foundation classes, where we have touched upon the enigmas of Pashukanis. I have had the pleasure also of presenting several fruitful seminars on my work to my fellow academics at UWS and other universities. For their advice and rigour, I owe a special debt to the supervisors of my PhD thesis at UWS: Razeen Sappideen and Scott Mann. Nor could this volume have been completed without the generous contri- butions of the staff and students of Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, Toronto, where I spent half a year in 2003 substantially complet- ing my thesis. For their criticisms and support, I am indebted to two examin- ers of my thesis: Harold Berman and Gill Boehringer. I am also grateful to Harry Glasbeek and Frederick Choate for reading and commenting on draft chapters of this book. Needless to say, the responsibility remains entirely mine for the final outcome. For their intellectual inspiration, I owe much to my colleagues in the Socialist Equality Party and at the World Socialist Web Site, for which I write regularly.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Change the World Without Taking Power. the Meaning of Revolution Today
    Change the World without Taking Power. The Meaning of Revolution Today. John Holloway Originally published 2002 by Pluto Press Chapter 1 – The Scream . 2 Chapter 2 – Beyond the State? . 9 Chapter 3 – Beyond Power? . 14 Chapter 4 – Fetishism . 30 Chapter 5 – Fetishism and Fetishisation . 52 Chapter 6 – Anti-fetishism and Criticism . 70 Chapter 7 – The Tradition of Scientific Marxism . 77 Chapter 8 – The Critical-Revolutionary Subject . 91 Chapter 9 – The Material Reality of Anti-Power . .101 Chapter 10 – The Material Reality of Anti-Power and the Crisis of Capital . Chapter 11 – Revolution? . 132 1 Chapter 1 - The Scream I In the beginning is the scream. We scream. When we write or when we read, it is easy to forget that the beginning is not the word, but the scream. Faced with the mutilation of human lives by capitalism, a scream of sadness, a scream of horror, a scream of anger, a scream of refusal: NO. The starting point of theoretical reflection is opposition, negativity, struggle. It is from rage that thought is born, not from the pose of reason, not from the reasoned-sitting-back-and-reflecting-on- the-mysteries-of-existence that is the conventional image of ‘the thinker’. We start from negation, from dissonance. The dissonance can take many shapes. An inarticulate mumble of discontent, tears of frustration, a scream of rage, a confident roar. An unease, a confusion, a longing, a critical vibration. Our dissonance comes from our experience, but that experience varies. Sometimes it is the direct experience of exploitation in the factory, or of oppression in the home, of stress in the office, of hunger and poverty, or of state violence or discrimination.
    [Show full text]
  • Eugen Ehrlich, Evgeny Pashukanis, and Meaningful Freedom Through Incremental Jurisprudential Change
    Journal of Libertarian Studies JLS Volume 23 (2019): 64–90 A Practical Approach to Legal- Pluralist Anarchism: Eugen Ehrlich, Evgeny Pashukanis, and Meaningful Freedom through Incremental Jurisprudential Change Jason M. Morgan2 ABSTRACT: John Hasnas (2008) has famously argued that anarchy is obvious and everywhere. It is less well known, however, that Hasnas also argues that anarchy must be achieved gradually. But how can this work? In this paper, I show that directly confronting state power will never produce viable anarchy (or minarchy). Using the example of Soviet jurist Evgeny Pashukanis, I detail an episode in apparent anti-statism which, by relying on the state, ended in disaster for the putative anti-statist. I next show how combining the theories of Austrian legal thinker Eugen Ehrlich and American political philosopher William Sewell, Jr., can lead to a gradual undoing of state power via case law. Finally, I bring in the example of Japanese jurist and early anti-statist Suehiro Izutarō as a warning. Suehiro also attempted to decrease state power by means of case law, but because he lacked a clear anti-statist teleology he ended up becoming an accomplice of state power, even imperialism. The way to Hasnian anarchy/minarchy lies through the skillful application of case law with an eye always towards the attenuation, and eventual elimination, of the power of the state. Jason M. Morgan ([email protected]) is associate professor of foreign languages at Reitaku University. The author would like to thank Lenore Ealy, Joe Salerno, and Mark Thornton for helpful comments on an early draft of this article.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxist and Soviet Law Stephen C
    Saint Louis University School of Law Scholarship Commons All Faculty Scholarship 2014 Marxist and Soviet Law Stephen C. Thaman Saint Louis University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/faculty Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, and the European Law Commons Recommended Citation Thaman, Stephen C., Marxist and Soviet Law (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Law (Markus D. Dubber and Tatjana Hörnle, eds.), Chpt. 14, 2014. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. No. 2015-2 Marxist and Soviet Law The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Law Stephen C. Thaman Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2570530 The Oxford Handbook of CRIMINAL LAW Edited by MARKUS D. DUBBER and TATJANA HÖRNLE 1 9780199673599_Hornle_Book.indb 3 Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=257053010/28/2014 1:05:38 PM 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © The several contributors 2014 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2014 Impression: 1 All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright © and Moral Rights for This Phd Thesis Are Retained by the Author And/Or Other Copyright Owners. a Copy Can Be Downlo
    Taylor, Owen (2014) International law and revolution. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20343 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. INTERNATIONAL LAW AND REVOLUTION OWEN TAYLOR Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2014 Law Department SOAS, University of London 1 Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________23/10/2014 2 ABSTRACT: This thesis aims to provide an investigation into how revolutionary transformation aimed to affect the international legal order itself, rather than what the international order might have to say about a revolution.
    [Show full text]
  • The Situation on the International Legal Theory Front: the Power of Rules and the Rule of Power
    q EJIL 2000 ............................................................................................. The Situation on the International Legal Theory Front: The Power of Rules and the Rule of Power Gerry Simpson* Abstract The rejuvenation of international law in the last decade has its source in two developments. On the one hand, ‘critical legal scholarship’ has infiltrated the discipline and provided it with a new sensibility and self-consciousness. On the other hand, liberal international lawyers have reached out to International Relations scholarship to recast the ways in which rules and power are approached. Meanwhile, the traditional debates about the source and power of norms have been invigorated by these projects. This review article considers these developments in the light of a recent contribution to international legal theory, Michael Byers’ Custom, Power and the Power of Rules. The article begins by entering a number of reservations to Byers’ imaginative strategy for reworking customary law and his distinctive approach to the enigma of opinio juris. The discussion then broadens by placing Byers’ book in the expanding dialogue between International Relations and International Law. Here, the article locates the mutual antipathy of the two disciplines in two moments of intellectual hubris: Wilson’s liberal certainty in 1919 and realism’s triumphalism in the immediate post-World War II era. The article then goes on to suggest that, despite a valiant effort, Byers cannot effect a reconciliation between the two disciplines and, in particular, the power of rules and the three theoretical programmes against which he argues: realism, institutionalism and constructivism. Finally, Byers’ book is characterized as a series of skirmishes on the legal theory front; a foray into an increasingly rich, adversarial and robust dialogue about the way to approach the study of international law and the goals one might support within the * Law Department, London School of Economics.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Voices of Socio-Legal Studies
    THREE VOICES OF SOCIO-LEGAL STUDIES Malcolm M. Feeley* Introduction The connection between law and contemporary social science emerged as a consequence of the quest for social reform. As law became more instrumental, it also became more empirical, more concerned with policy. For this process, it turned to social science. Social science com- plied and has become an adjunct to law in the quest for solving social problems. As this partnership has developed, the relationship between law and social science has matured. Not only has social science sought to educate and influence law, it has also incorporated law into its own disciplinary concerns. Furthermore, the field of socio-legal studies may be on the verge of establishing itself as a separate and distinct disci- pline, independent of the practical concerns of law. The scholarly intersection of law and social science - or socio-legal studies, as I shall call it - now speaks with at least three voices addressed to at least three audiences. It speaks as policy analysis, a handmaiden to law. It also speaks in the traditional language of the social sciences. Thirdly, it may be gaining a voice of its own, reflecting a belief that law is a distinct form of ordering that merits its own position among the scholarly disciplines, separate from both scholarly fields and the professional concerns of law. At their core, each of these enterprises entails a distinct voice, a distinct audience, and a distinct agenda. After tracing the recent history of the relationship between law and the social sciences in the United States, this article identifies three different voices in which socio-legal studies speak and their three some- what different audiences.
    [Show full text]
  • Common MICHAEL
    "Everyone seems to agree that our economic system is bro• ken, yet the debate about alternatives remains oppressively MICHAEL narrow. Hardt and Negri explode this claustrophobic de• bate, taking readers to the deepest roots of our current common HARDT crises and proposing radical, and deeply human, solutions. There has never been a better time for this book." ANTONIO —Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine NEGRI 'Commonwealth, last and richest of the Empire trilogy, is a wealth powerful and ambitious reappropriation of the whole tradi• tion of political theory for the Left. Clarifying Foucault's ambiguous notion of biopower, deepening the authors' own proposal for the notion of multitude, it offers an exhil• arating summa of the forms and possibilities of resistance today. It is a politically as well as an intellectually invigorat• ing achievement." —Fredric Jameson, Duke University ISBN 17fl-D-t7M-D3Sll-1 BELKNAP and Negri's thought, it also stands alone and is entirely accessible to readers who are not famil• iar with the previous works. It is certain to ap• peal to, challenge, and enrich the thinking of anyone interested in questions of politics and globalization. Photo of Antonio Negri (left) and Michael Hardt by Nora Parcu MICHAEL HARDT is Professor of Literature and Italian at Duke University. ANTONIO NEGRI is an independent researcher and writer. They are coauthors of Empire (Harvard) and Multitude. THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts Design: Jill Breitbarth When Empire appeared in 2000, it defined the political and economic challenges of the era of globalization and, thrillingly, found in them pos• sibilities for new and more democratic forms of social organization.
    [Show full text]
  • I the Privatization of Protection: the Neoliberal Fourteenth Amendment
    The Privatization of Protection: The Neoliberal Fourteenth Amendment by Corinne Blalock Graduate Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Michael Hardt, Supervisor ___________________________ Robyn Wiegman ___________________________ Fredric Jameson ___________________________ Ralf Michaels Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 i v ABSTRACT The Privatization of Protection: The Neoliberal Fourteenth Amendment by Corinne Blalock Graduate Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Michael Hardt, Supervisor ___________________________ Robyn Wiegman ___________________________ Fredric Jameson ___________________________ Ralf Michaels An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 Copyright by Corinne Blalock 2019 Abstract This dissertation, “The Privatization of Protection: The Neoliberal Fourteenth Amendment” examines how the importation of private law and free market frameworks into public law have reshaped the Supreme Court’s understanding of equality and due process in areas as diverse as international arbitration, access to abortion, and affirmative action. My research draws on both legal and critical theory methods, reading studies of political economy alongside analysis of doctrinal and historical sources to explore how the rhetoric of the market transforms and limits the ways we imagine our society and the role of government in it. This dissertation traces how the embrace of the models of efficiency, choice, and human capital by both liberal and conservative justices alike has eroded the law’s protective role.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a History and Theory of Economic Coercion
    University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 2016 Beyond Liberty: Toward a History and Theory of Economic Coercion Hiba Hafiz Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Hiba Hafiz, "Beyond Liberty: Toward a History and Theory of Economic Coercion," 83 Tennessee Law Review 1071 (2016). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BEYOND LIBERTY: TOWARD A HISTORY AND THEORY OF ECONOMIC COERCION HIBA HAFIz* INTRODUCTION.. ........................................... 1073 I. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHICAL ACCOUNTS OF COERCION ........................................ 1076 A. PhilosophicalAccounts of Coercion Through the Nineteenth Century. ................... ....... 1077 B. Coercion and the Law in Modern Analytic Philosophy 1081 1. Coercion and Public Law........ ...... ...... 1082 2. Coercion and Private Law ............. ...... 1084 C. Limitations of PhilosophicalAccounts ...... ....... 1089 1. Philosophical Accounts of Public Law and A Theory of Economic Coercion ................. ..... 1089 2. Philosophical Accounts of Private Law and A Theory of Economic Coercion ................. ..... 1090 3. Extrapolating Minimum Requirements For A Theory of Economic Coercion ................
    [Show full text]
  • Jacques Derrida Law As Absolute Hospitality
    JACQUES DERRIDA LAW AS ABSOLUTE HOSPITALITY JACQUES DE VILLE NOMIKOI CRITICAL LEGAL THINKERS Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida: Law as Absolute Hospitality presents a comprehensive account and understanding of Derrida’s approach to law and justice. Through a detailed reading of Derrida’s texts, Jacques de Ville contends that it is only by way of Derrida’s deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence, and specifi cally in relation to the texts of Husserl, Levinas, Freud and Heidegger, that the reasoning behind his elusive works on law and justice can be grasped. Through detailed readings of texts such as ‘To Speculate – on Freud’, Adieu, ‘Declarations of Independence’, ‘Before the Law’, ‘Cogito and the History of Madness’, Given Time, ‘Force of Law’ and Specters of Marx, de Ville contends that there is a continuity in Derrida’s thinking, and rejects the idea of an ‘ethical turn’. Derrida is shown to be neither a postmodernist nor a political liberal, but a radical revolutionary. De Ville also controversially contends that justice in Derrida’s thinking must be radically distinguished from Levinas’s refl ections on ‘the Other’. It is the notion of absolute hospitality – which Derrida derives from Levinas, but radically transforms – that provides the basis of this argument. Justice must, on de Ville’s reading, be understood in terms of a demand of absolute hospitality which is imposed on both the individual and the collective subject. A much needed account of Derrida’s infl uential approach to law, Jacques Derrida: Law as Absolute Hospitality will be an invaluable resource for those with an interest in legal theory, and for those with an interest in the ethics and politics of deconstruction.
    [Show full text]
  • A Marxist Perspective on Jurisprudence
    A Marxist perspective on jurisprudence By Kevin Kearney 26 November 2008 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/pash-n26.shtml (World Socialist Web Site) Evgeny Pashukanis, A Critical Reappraisal, Michael Head, Routledge-Cavendish, 2008, 271 pp., $55.95. Bourgeois jurisprudence's state of decay, manifesting itself most sharply in the perversion of constitutional law and the systematic destruction of democratic rights, can be understood only through an analysis of law in its historical development on an ever-shifting socio-economic foundation. Such an approach is almost non-existent in legal academia. Instead, academia is dominated by a militantly empirical, practice-based orientation characterized by the meticulous study of individual cases, largely disconnected from history, politics, current social reality and even international law treating the same topics. In most university law libraries today one would be hard pressed to find any serious consideration of the origins and development of what has been virtually deified as the "rule of law." In this cloistered atmosphere, Michael Head's book, Evgeny Pashukanis, A Critical Reappraisal, shines the light of day on one of the most important legal theories to come out of "the boldest and most sweeping experiment of the 20th century"—the October 1917 Russian Revolution. Head is a law professor at the University of Western Sydney in Australia and a regular contributor to the World Socialist Web Site. Prior to the revolution, as now, the "rule of law" routinely put its seal of approval on economic exploitation, political repression and state murder. Upon seizing power, the Soviet government disposed of the previous courts, legal system and legal profession in its effort to radically refashion society and facilitate the ultimate "withering away" of the state.
    [Show full text]
  • Dreams and Nightmares of Liberal International Law: Capitalist Accumulation, Natural Rights and State Hegemony
    Law Critique DOI 10.1007/s10978-016-9188-x Dreams and Nightmares of Liberal International Law: Capitalist Accumulation, Natural Rights and State Hegemony Tarik Kochi1 Ó The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract This article develops a line of theorising the relationship between peace, war and commerce and does so via conceptualising global juridical relations as a site of contestation over questions of economic and social justice. By sketching aspects of a historical interaction between capitalist accumulation, natural rights and state hegemony, the article offers a critical account of the limits of liberal inter- national law, and attempts to recover some ground for thinking about the emanci- patory potential of international law more generally. Keywords Capital Á Grotius Á Hegemony Á International law Á Legal theory Á Liberalism Á Natural rights Á Political economy Á Primitive accumulation Á Terrorism Á War Introduction One aspect of the dream of liberal international law which emerges at least from the seventeenth century is the idea that modern commerce can help to move the world towards peaceful international relations. This idea is expressed in seventeenth- century theories of natural rights and is later inherited and developed in eighteenth- century classical political economy and in liberal political theory in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The idea has not been without its many critics. For example, for Lenin, intra-capitalist economic competition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was seen as a major cause of violent imperialism and interstate war (Lenin 1987). For Immanuel Wallerstein, the shaping of a modern capitalist world system has come about historically through interstate violence as & Tarik Kochi [email protected] 1 Sussex Law School, School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9SP, UK 123 T.
    [Show full text]