Harper Lees To Kill A Mockingbird Essay -- Racism Race Kill Mockingbi

harpist Lees To Kill A MockingbirdThe United States has been dealing with the issue of racism ever since Columbus come on Plymouth Rock. The Indians were the first to endure harsh racism in this country. Pilgrims moving west ran them off their land wiping out many an(prenominal) tribes and destroying many resources in their path. However, when many think of racism today, the issue of blacks and whites is the first to come to mind. African Americans have come a long way in todays night club as compared to the society their ancestors had to overcome. But just as far as we have come, there is still a long way we must go. Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird, clearly exhibits racism and what it was like in the nineteen-thirties through the trial of Tom Robinson and the only white man that supports him, Atticus Finch. The square town of Mycomb becomes overwhelmed by a crime that a poor, white trash young woman named Mayella Ewell, accuses Tom Robinson, a black field la borer, of committing. This is very comparable to the case of the Scottsboro Boys where nine black men were also wrongfully accused of a crime only because of the color of their skin. The fictional story, To Kill A Mockingbird, seems to depict actual events that happened throughout the nineteen-thirties in the south, during a time when whites dominated the legal system and blacks had no rights.The nineteen-thirties was a time of great hardship for many Americans in the south and around the country. The great depression was in full effect and was especially hard on those Americans who were involved in agriculture. The south played waiter to a higher degree of segregation than any other region of the country at this time. Many states and cities reinforced segregat... ...as usually taken care of immaterial of the courtroom, left dangling from a tree or beaten to death by angry mobs. White Justice, was the only thing that mattered to the white southerners during the nineteen-t hirties. And that was the only thing that the blacks would get. Works CitedBraziel, Jana. History of Lynching in the United States. Chicago University of Illinois Press, 1992.Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird. New York Warner Books, 1982.Linder, Douglas. The Trials of The Scottsboro Boys. http//www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_acct.htmlMartin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff. Jim triumph Laws. January 5, 1998. http//www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm.Stewart E. Tolnay and E.M. Beck, A Festival of Violence An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930.

Why Should I Be Moral? :: essays research papers fc

Why Should I Be Moral?     The question of morality proves to be a complex interrogatory. Should Ibe moral? If I should be, accordingly why? Why is morality important to society? Anassumption can be made that morals derive from a purely religious perspective orthe Golden Rule approach. We are told that it is right to be moral. This is anineffective answer, since it does non apply to someone outside the moral circle(Olsen, 79).This in mind, in that location is re solelyy no way to prove this too a person whowants to know why he/she should be moral. According to Olen, the only answer tothem would be "because you are". Happiness could also be included in the listof moral reasons. I personally feel that this is the best supported reason for macrocosm moral. Although there will be times when the moral decision will not bepleasurable, it will eventually lead to rapture. Morality is important forsociety as a whole, as it makes life livable. Now expanding o n the happinesstheory, I will discuss the ideas of Aristotle. Aristotle believed thathappiness is the quality of whole human life. We all have misconceptions abouthappiness. Most of us believe that happiness is experiencing a lively feelingof joy or pleasant feelings. We can be clever at one moment, but not the next.Aristotle on the other hand said that true happiness includes pleasures, joys,and successes as well as many pains, griefs, and troubles in ones life. A happylife is not cause by the pleasures weve had, nor marred by the displeasuresweve had.     Aristotle also contended that children could not be happy as therequirement for happiness was a complete life. For instance, an old man lookingback on his life and being able to say that it was good, is happiness.     Aristotle defined the things that make happiness as health, wealth,friendship, and good moral point of reference. Aristotle stated that happiness was alsothe highest good le aving nothing more to be desired. Life is made perfect by will power of all good things. We seek happiness for its own sake. All othersare sought for happiness. Aristotle believed to become happy one must have goodcharacter and be willing to suffer to obtain the greater good later on. Weshould seek the good in the long run. Most men/women will not do this. We takethe immediate pleasure. Most people think that happiness is unique to eachperson. Aristotle believed that there is only one true conception and that itholds the same(p) for all humans. Power is not an attribute to happiness because

The Darkened Tunnel :: Personal Narrative Writing

The Darkened Tunnel En route of my journey from home to my finale I came across something that caught my attention. A hole intruding into the attitude of a hill beckoned me to investigate. Curiosity drew me to the mouth of the tunnel where I was overcome by a dank odor. It wasnt the most inviting of places, concrete walkway leading into the dark unknown and a large gutter extruding rainwater from somewhere at heart it. I stepped to the threshold to see what lay within. An old obtain cart sat in the gutter on its side shrouded by an old tarp. The scrawling on the w all revealed to me that I was not the first one here. spirit into the tunnel I could see it ext demise into darkness. Like looking into infinity, there was no end in sight. Who is to say what could be inside maybe a friend, maybe an enemy, maybe knowledge, maybe love, maybe death, maybe nothing. The only light shown from the military personnel outside, the world I knew. There I stood, on the threshold surrounded by light and dark, one world and the next, the familiar and the unknown. My curiosity was almost unbearable Confronted by the end of whether or not to explore this tunnel, I couldnt military service but to ponder the importance of choice itself. What difference does this choice make? Life is choice, a long series of conclusions made exclusively by the individual. We all have the power to determine the scarper of our own lives through the choices we make, any instant of every waking day. Think about the people you know, the clothes you sap or the food you eat, its all a matter of your individual choice. Every decision we make is linked to another moment in the course of life, be it significant or not, we may never know how important our individual choices truly are. Examples of these life changing decisions can be seen everywhere, in whatsoever choice we make. The choice that my parents made to attend the same formal, in Middle America, where they met t hat one shadow in 1968, allowed for my existence today. So if it werent for that choice I wouldnt even be choosing my words.The Darkened Tunnel Personal Narrative WritingThe Darkened Tunnel En route of my journey from home to my destination I came across something that caught my attention. A hole intruding into the side of a hill beckoned me to investigate. Curiosity drew me to the mouth of the tunnel where I was overcome by a dank odor. It wasnt the most inviting of places, concrete walkway leading into the dark unknown and a large gutter extruding rainwater from somewhere within it. I stepped to the threshold to see what lay within. An old shopping cart sat in the gutter on its side shrouded by an old tarp. The scrawling on the wall revealed to me that I was not the first one here. Looking into the tunnel I could see it extend into darkness. Like looking into infinity, there was no end in sight. Who is to say what could be inside maybe a friend, maybe an enemy, m aybe knowledge, maybe love, maybe death, maybe nothing. The only light shown from the world outside, the world I knew. There I stood, on the threshold between light and dark, one world and the next, the familiar and the unknown. My curiosity was almost unbearable Confronted by the decision of whether or not to explore this tunnel, I couldnt help but to ponder the importance of choice itself. What difference does this choice make? Life is choice, a long series of decisions made exclusively by the individual. We all have the power to determine the course of our own lives through the choices we make, every instant of every waking day. Think about the people you know, the clothes you wear or the food you eat, its all a matter of your individual choice. Every decision we make is linked to another moment in the course of life, be it significant or not, we may never know how important our individual choices really are. Examples of these life changing decisions can be seen ever ywhere, in any choice we make. The choice that my parents made to attend the same formal, in Middle America, where they met that one night in 1968, allowed for my existence today. So if it werent for that choice I wouldnt even be choosing my words.

Early Onset Anorexia Essay -- Eating Disorders Health Nutrition Essays

Early Onset Anorexia In recent age, it seems that the public has begun to pay to a grruster extent attention to eating inconvenience oneselfs. This trend could be a consequence of the heightened nutrition and fitness craze that the 1990s has brought about, or possibly a result of more yearning and conclusive research studies. More clearly defined definitions of anorexia and bulimia in the DSM-IV may also contain contributed to better diagnosis of eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa is a disorder that in the majority of cases will start when the patient is a teenager. The mean age at onset is figured to be about 17 years of age. The distribution of cases appears to be asymmetrical with a skewness towards the higher ages (Theander, 1996). Recently, child psychiatrists have begun to recognize increasing cases beginning in childhood (McCune & Walford, 1991). While refusal to eat and loss of weight are common symptoms in child psychiatric practices, similarities between these anoretic states and the syndrome of anorexia nervosa are slight (Hawley, 1985). While severity of illness is usually associated with worsened outcome, age of onset for anorexia can play a critical role in future outcome. Premenarcheal anorexia nervosa has serious implications for the progress of puberty which may in turn, have detrimental effects on the youngsters (Bryant-Waugh, Fosson, Knibbs, & Lask, 1987). It is important that pediatricians, psychiatrists, educators, and parents are able to identify this disorder at early ages. The purpose of the following sections of this paper are to befriend familiarize readers with signs and symptoms which may aid in identification of anorexia leading to an early diagnosis. Symptoms Associated with Anorexia Girls with anorexia nervosa may d... ...Age and Menstrual Status on Psychological Variables. Journal of -the American honorary society of Child and Adolescent Psychiary, 34, 378-382. Hawley, Richard. (1985). The Outcome of Anorexia Nervosa in You nger Subjects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 657660. McCune, Noel & Walford, Geraldine. (1991). Long-Term outcome in Early-Onset Anorexia Nervosa. British Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 383-389. Rastam, Maria. (1992). lmdrexia in 51 Swedish Adolescents Premorbid Problems and Comorbidity. Journal of the American Academy of Chlld and Adolescent Psychiatry, 11, 819-827. Romeo, Felicia.(1996). Educators and the Onset of AnorexiaNervosa in Young. Education, 117, 55-60. Theander, Sten. (1996). Anorexia Nervosa with an Early Onset Selection, Gender, Outcome, and Results of a Long-Term Follow-Up Study. Journal of Youth and Adolescencg, 25, 419428.

David Letterman :: Biography Biographies Bio

David LettermanDavid Letterman grew up in a small town in eastern Indiana. Hewas born to Joseph and Dorothy Letterman. After reading the novel, DavidLetterman On coiffe and Off by Rosemarie Lennon, I have learned about all hisstruggles and joys. Because of this book, I feel sorry towards one of thefunniest people on Earth, David Letterman. I besides admire him for his good actsand abilities.To realize why I feel what I feel toward Letterman, you have to look atsome of the main points in his life. world-class of all, Dave was exactly an Astudent. He struggled all of his life through grade school to college. He alsowasnt very popular. He stated, I remember rest around. . . with theother losers, watching all the athletes play sports. alone we could do is makefun and ridicule them. He was never good at anything until high school. AllI ever knew how to do was to make people laugh. In high school I was the classclown, making fun of everything and everyone. This personali ty trait was whatgave him his thousands of plication fans, watching his show every night to seeDave rip to shreds anyone who dare challenge him. Another thing that wasimportant to him was his mother and father. His father, Joseph Letterman, andDave went fishing quite practically when he was young. Dave looked up to his fathertremendously. When Joseph had his first heart attack when he was thirty-six,Dave and his father started to drift away. Later, Daves Dad died when he wasfifty-three. One of Davids top regrets was never spending a lot of time withhis dad. As for his mother, she is the classical conservative mother of thefifties. She was always very hard on Dave when he got into mischief in school--which was quite often. She is still a part of Daves life, and can be seenquite often on his show, doing a comedy sketch, or telling audience members whatthe temperature was in Lillihammer during the Winter Olympics.The Reason I feel sorry for Letterman is because of his traged ies of hispast. His Dads passing was hard enough, but he had other trials to deal with.Like his mother. She was never really high-minded of David, constantly reminding himhe was going to fail, and not encouraging him to take his natural ability to

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Essay -- classic story, literar

Based on the guiltless Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Roman, Julie, and Friends displays a new theme on becoming friends with tykeren of each(prenominal)(prenominal) genders, even if it is not expected or allowed by their friends. There were many changes made to create a story that resembled Romeo and Juliet but also changed the meaning to a more positive and age appropriate honourable. For example some of the original characters are resembled in the remediation, while others were completely new for the purpose of the new plot. The classic play was changed to a childrens book to provide a positive message to children by using pictures and designings that would suit a childs liking. The design of the book was happy and cheerful, with basic pictures that resemble the words but are similar to the other pictures in the book. The book also uses ethos, logos, and pathos to sell the moral of the story. Ethos is mainly utilise by the creditability of Shakespeare. While patho s is the ability for the reader to connect with the characters personalities and stories. Logos is used by providing the child realize that friends can be any gender or personalities, but if given the chance a friend can be found in anyone. The target audience is for children or so the instruction level of 3, with the purpose being the idea that children can become friends with children of any gender.The target audience for this remediation is children around the ages of 5-8 at a reading level of 3. The purpose of this remediation is the idea that a classic story can be changed to suit the views of a child. This story tells about how children should not sound out other children based on their gender, but on their personalities and similarities. The book mainly uses stereotypical versions of boys and... ... ethos from taking a classic, well-known play and changing some expatiate while still keeping the overall credit of the play. While using also using pathos as the main element to convince the child reading the book that any relationship can be formed if given the chance, while also using logos by providing the child with the facts that each of the child found a similarity between them and became friends. The design showed accurate visual images of the words while the cover displayed a happy ending. All the changes were used to display the differences in others and how friendships can be made if there is no judgment but acceptance of differences and looked at the personality. Overall the changes were made to appeal to a child instead of an older audience like Romeo and Juliet.Works CitedShakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. New York Penguin Books, 1998. Print.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Essay -- classic story, literar

Based on the classic Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Roman, Julie, and Friends dis dos a bleak ascendent on becoming friends with electric razorren of all genders, even if it is not expected or allowed by their friends. There were many changes made to create a invoice that resembled Romeo and Juliet just now alike changed the meaning to a more positive and age appropriate moral. For example some of the original characters are resembled in the remediation, while others were completely new for the purpose of the new plot. The classic play was changed to a childrens book to provide a positive message to children by using pictures and designs that would suit a childs liking. The design of the book was happy and cheerful, with basic pictures that resemble the words but are similar to the other pictures in the book. The book also uses ethos, countersign, and pathos to sell the moral of the story. Ethos is principal(prenominal)ly used by the creditability of Shakespeare. Wh ile pathos is the ability for the reader to connect with the characters personalities and stories. Logos is used by providing the child realize that friends can be any gender or personalities, but if given the chance a friend can be found in anyone. The target audience is for children near the reading level of 3, with the purpose being the idea that children can become friends with children of any gender.The target audience for this remediation is children around the ages of 5-8 at a reading level of 3. The purpose of this remediation is the idea that a classic story can be changed to suit the views of a child. This story tells about how children should not judge other children based on their gender, but on their personalities and similarities. The book mainly uses stereotypical versions of boys and... ... ethos from taking a classic, well-known play and changing some details while still keeping the overall credit of the play. While using also using pathos as the main element to c onvince the child reading the book that any relationship can be formed if given the chance, while also using logos by providing the child with the facts that each of the child found a similarity between them and became friends. The design showed accurate visual images of the words while the cover displayed a happy ending. All the changes were used to display the differences in others and how friendships can be made if there is no judgment but acceptance of differences and looked at the personality. overall the changes were made to appeal to a child instead of an older audience like Romeo and Juliet.Works CitedShakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. New York Penguin Books, 1998. Print.

The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 28

They walked right by the weeping door-guards. just very quickly, they discovered that sequence close each unity was bewareing to skirt Fazina, in each room of the palace that was open to the public, a swart-clad, white-gloved steward awaited, ready to give come out of the closet information, and to keep a vigilant eye on his ladys possessions.The first room that gave them each kind of hope was bird Fazinas H each(prenominal) of Harpery, a room devoted entirely to the display of consists, from ancient, bow uniform, angio decenniumsin converting enzyme-stringed instrumental roles, undoubtedly played by individuals who were similar to cavedwellers, to t only, gilded, orchestral harps wish the one Fazina was now playing, the music audible throughout the palace. Magic, Elena thought again. They seem to use it hither quite of technology.Each kind of harp has a unique diagnose to tune the strings, Meredith whispered, feel down the length of the abidance. On each side the line of harps marched into the distance. ace of those cays might be the key. merely how bequeath we eve screw? comely was fanning herself lightly with her peacock feather fan. Whats the difference between a harp key and the hold key?I dont go to bed. And Ive never comprehend of a key world kept in a harp, either. It would rattle round the sound quoin every time the harp shifted somewhat, Meredith admitted.Elena bit her lip. It was such a simple, reasonable question. She should feel dismayed, should be wondering how they could ever find one small half of a key in this place. Especially considering that the clue they had that it was in the Silver Nightingales instrument, suddenly seemed absurd.I dont suppose, Bonnie said a little giddily, that the instrument is her express, and that if we strive down her throatElena move to look at Meredith, who was looking heavenward or at whatever was above this hideous dimension. I know, Meredith said. No more(prenominal) drink s for birdbrain here. Although I suppose its possible that they give out little silver whistles or instruments as favors all big parties used to do that, you know give you a gift.How, Damon said in a carefully expressionless tone, would they possibly get the key into a favor for a party being give at least weeks away, and how could they ever hope to retrieve it? Misao might as well have told Elena, We threw the key away.Well, began Meredith, Im not at all current that they did mean for the keys to be retrievable, even by them. And Misao could have meant Youd have to search all the garbage from the night of this jamboree or some other party Fazina performed at. I imagine she gets asked to play at a lot of other peoples parties, in addition.Elena hated bickering, even though she was a champion bickerer herself. But she was a g nonpareiless tonight. Nothing was impossible. If and she could rememberSomething like white lightning struck her brain.For just an instant one instant she was back, struggling with Misao. Misao was in her fox form, biting and scratching and snarling out a reply to Elenas question about where the dickens halves of the fox key were. As if you would understand the answers I could give. If I told you that one was inside the silver nightingales instrument, would that give you any kind of idea?Yes. Those had been the exact words, the real words that Misao had spoken. Elena heard her own voice, repeating the words distinctly now.And and so she felt something like an arc of lightning reserve her mind only to meet anothers not far away. The nigh thing she knew her eyes were flying open in surprise because Bonnie was speaking in that blank toneless way she always did when making a prophecyEach half of the fox key is shaped like a single fox, with two ears, two eyes, and a snout. The two fox key halves are gold and covered with gems and their eyes are green. The key you seek is yet in the Silver Nightingales instrument.Bonnie Elena sa id. She could see that Bonnies knees were trembling, her eyes unfocused. Then they opened and Elena watched as confusion surged in to fill the blankness.Whats going on? Bonnie said, looking around to see everyone looking at her. What what happened?You told us what the fox keys look like Elena couldnt help this exclamation almost a shout of joy. Now that they knew what they were looking for they could dislodge Stefan they would free Stefan. Nothing would stop Elena now. Bonnie had just helped move this quest to an entirely different level.But while she was quaking inside with joy at the prophecy, Meredith, in her own level- galleryed way, was fetching care of the prophet. Meredith said quietly, Shes probably going to faint. Would you pleaseMeredith didnt have to ask further, for the lamias, Damon and sensible, were each quick enough to catch and support Bonnie on opposite sides. Damon was staring down at the diminutive girl in surprise.Thanks, Meredith, Bonnie said, and let out a breath, blinking. I dont think Ill faint, she added, and consequently with a glance up at Damon through her lashes, But its probably just as well to groom sure.Damon nodded and got a better grip, looking serious. sharp turned half away, seeming to have something stuck in his throat.What did I say? I dont rememberAnd after Elena had solemnly repeated Bonnies words it was just like Meredith to say, Youre sure now, Bonnie? Does that sound right?Im sure. Im positive, Elena cut in. She was positive. The Goddess Ishtar and Bonnie had unlocked the past for her and shown her the key.All right. What if Bonnie and Sage and I retire this room, and two of us can be distracting the steward, while the third looks in the harps for keys? Meredith suggested.Right. Lets do it Elena said.Merediths plan proved to be more difficult in practice than it sounded. Even with two glorious young girls in the room and one terminally fit guy, the steward kept spinning in little circles and catching one or another of them handling and peering into a harp.Naturally, the handling was strictly forbidden. It put the harps further out of tune and it could easily damage them, especially since the only way to make absolutely sure that a small golden key was not in a harps sound box was to actually shake the harp and listen for rattling.Worse, each of the harps was displayed in its own little nook, complete with dramatic lighting, a flamboyant painted screen behind it (most of them portraits of Fazina playing the harp in question), and a plush red rope across the front of the nook that said Keep Out as plainly as a sign.In the land up Bonnie, Meredith, and Sage resorted to having Sage Influence the steward to be entirely passive something he was only able to do for a few minutes of time, or the steward would notice the gaps in Lady Fazinas program. They would then each frantically search harps while the steward stood like a wax figure.Meanwhile Damon and Elena were terrestrial the palace, looking through the rest of the mansion that was off-limits to visitors. If they ensnare goose egg, they intended to search the more available rooms as the gala continued.It was dangerous work, this take in and out of darkened, cordoned-off often locked empty rooms dangerous and strangely thrilling to Elena. Somehow, it seemed that fear and passion were more closely related than she had fully realized. Or at least, it seemed that way with her and Damon.Elena couldnt help noticing and admiring little things about him. He seemed to be able to fragmentize any lock with a single little practice he produced from inside his black jacket, the way other people produce fountain pens, and he had such a swift, graceful way of taking the hoof it out and putting it back in. Economy of motion, she knew, earned by living for around five centuries.Also, no one could argue it Damon seemed to keep his head in any situation, which made them a good pair right now when she was striding around l ike a goddess who could not be bound by the rules of mortals. This was even enhanced by the scares she got shapes that looked like guards or sentries looming up at her turned out to be a stuffed bear, a slim cupboard, and something Damon didnt allow her more than a glimpse of, just what looked like a mummified human. Damon wasnt fazed by any of them.If I could just channel some more world power to my eyes, Elena thought, and things immediately brightened up. Her Power was obeying herGod Ill have to wear this dress for the rest of my life it makes me feel sopowerful. Sounashamed. Ill have to wear it to college, if I ever get to college, to ingrain my professors and to Stefans and my wedding just so people understand Im not a slut and to the beach, just to give the guys something to ogleShe stifled a giggle and was strike to see Damon glance with mock reproach at her. Of course, he was as closely focused on her as she was on him. But it was a slightly different case, of course, b ecause, to his eyes, she wore a big label with STRAWBERRY JAM written on it, tied around her neck. And he was getting hungry again. Very hungry. attached time Im going to see that you eat properly before you go out, she thought at him.Lets worry about succeeding this time before we scoop up planning for next time, he returned, with just the faintest firefly hint of his 250-kilowatt smile.But it was all mixed in, of course, with a little of the sardonic triumph that Damon always carried with him. Elena swore to herself that jape at her as he might, beg her as he might, threaten or cajole as he might, she wouldnt give Damon the satisfaction of even one nip tonight. He could just pop the top off another jam pot, she thought.Eventually, the sweet music of the concert was stilled and Elena and Damon dashed back to meet with Bonnie, Meredith, and Sage in the Harpery Hall. Elena could have guessed the news by Bonnies stance, even if she hadnt already known from Sages silence. But the new s was worse than Elena could have imagined not only had the three found nothing in the Harpery Hall, but they had finally resorted to quizzing the steward, who could speak, if not move, under Sages Influence.And guess what he told us, Bonnie said, and added before anyone could venture a word, Those harps are each cleaned and tuned every single day. Fazina has, like, a whole army of servants for them. And anything, anything that didnt belong to a harp would be reported at once. And nothing has been It just isnt thereElena felt herself contract from omniscient goddess to baffled human. I was worried it would be like this, she admitted, sighing. It would have been just too easy the other way. All right, Plan B. You mingle with the gala guests, trying to get a look at each room thats open to the public. Try to dazzle Fazinas consort and pump him for information. See if Misao and Shinichi have been here recently. Damon and I will keep looking in the rooms that are supposed to be closed off.Thats so dangerous, Meredith said, frowning. Im afraid of what the penalty might be if youre caught.Im afraid of what the penalty might be to Stefan if we dont find this key tonight, Elena retorted shortly, and turned on her heel, leaving.Damon followed her. They searched endless darkened rooms, now not even knowing whether they were looking for a harp or something else. First Damon would check if there were a breathing body inside the room (there might be a vampire guard, of course, but there wasnt much to do about that), then he picked the lock. Things were working seamlessly until they reached a room at the end of a long hall facing west Elena had long since gotten lost in the palace, but she could unerringly tell west, because it was where the bloated sun hung.Damon had picked the lock of this room and Elena had originally started forward eagerly. She searched the room, which contained, frustratingly, a silver-framed plastic film of a harp, but with nothing as bulky as the half of the fox key inside it, even when she had carefully used Damons lock pick to unscrew the backing.It was while she was placing this picture back on the wall that they both heard the thump. Elena winced, praying that none of the black-suited security servants who roamed the palace had heard the noise.Damon quickly put a hand over her mouth and dialed the gaslight knob into darkness.But they both could hear it nowfootsteps approaching from international in the hallway. Someone had heard the thump. The footsteps stopped outside the door and there was the distinct sound of an upper servants discreet cough.Elena whirled, feeling in that moment as if Wings of Redemption were within her reach. It would only crave the slightest rise in adrenaline and she would have the security worker on his or her knees, sobbing in the penitence of a lifetimes work at evil. Elena and Damon would be gone before But Damon had another idea, and Elena was startled into going along with it.When the doo r opened silently a moment later, the steward found a couple locked in such a tight embrace that they seemed not even to notice the intrusion. Elena could practically feel his indignation. The desire of a couple of guests to discreetly embrace in the privacy of Lady Fazinas many public rooms was understandable, but this was part of the private household. As he turned the lights up, Elena peeked at him out of the corner of her eye. Her psychic senses were open enough to catch his thoughts. He was going over the valuables in the room with an experienced but bored gaze. The exquisite little vase with the trailing roses picked out in rubies and emerald-encrusted vines the magically preserved 5,000-year-old woodsen Sumerian lyre the twin pair of solid gold candlesticks in the shape of rearing dragons the Egyptian funerary mask with its dark, elongated eyeholes seeming to watch out of its brilliantly painted featuresall were here. It wasnt even as if her ladyship kept anything of great value here, but still, This room is not part of the public display, he told Damon, who merely clasped Elena closer.Yes, Damon seemed very determined to put on a good show for the stewardor something like that. But hadnt they alreadydone so? Elenas thoughts were losing coherency. The last thingthe very last thing that they could affordwas tolose the chance offinding the fox key. Elena started to pull away, and then realized that she mustnt.Mustnt. Not couldnt. She was property, expensive property to be sure, decked out the way she was tonight, but Damons to dispose of as he chose. While individual else was looking on, she must not seem to disobey her masters wishes.Still, Damon was taking this too farfarther than he had ever taken liberties with her, although, she thought wryly, he didnt know that. He was caressing the skin left unprotected by the ivory goddess dress, her arms, her back, even her hair. He knew how she liked that, how she could somehow feel it when her hair was held and the ends caressed softly or gently crushed in a fist.Damon She was down to the last resort now pleading. Damon, if they detain us, or do anything to us that keeps us from finding the key tonight when will we have another chance?She let him feel her desperation, her guilt, even the treacherous desire she had to forget everything and let each minute subscribe to her further on this wave of ardor that he had created. Damon, Illsay it if you want. Imbegging you. Elena could feel her eyes prickling as tears flooded them. No tears. Elena heard Damons telepathic voice gratefully. at that place was something strange about it, though. It couldnt be starvation hed had her blood not much more than two hours ago. And it wasnt passion, for she could hear and sense that, all too clearly. Yet Damons telepathic voice was so taut with control that it almost frightened her. More, she knew he could feel that it frightened her and that he chose to do nothing about it. No explanation. No explo ration, either, she realized as she found that behind the control, his mind was entirely shut to her.The only thing she could liken the feeling that she got from his hard control was pain. Pain that was just on the edge of the endurable.But from what? Elena wondered helplessly.What could cause him pain like that?Elena couldnt waste their time on wondering what was wrong with Damon. She turned up the Power of her own hearing and began to listen at the doors before they entered.It was while she was listening that suddenly a new idea solidified in Elenas mind, and she stopped Damon in a pitch-dark hallway and tried to explain to him what kind of room she was looking for. What, in modern days, would be called a inhabitancy office.Damon, familiar with the architecture of great mansions, took her, after only a few false starts, into what was clearly a ladys writing room. Elenas eyes were by now as keen as his in the dimness as they searched by the light of a single candle.While Elena wa s being frustrated after searching a remarkable desk with pigeonholes for secret drawers, and not finding any, Damon was checking the hallway.I hear someone outside, he said. I think its time to leave now.But Elena was still looking. And as her eyes raced across the room she saw a small writing desk with an old-fashioned chair and an assortment of various pens, from ancient to modern, flaunting themselves from elaborate holders.Lets go while its still clear, Damon murmured impatiently.Yes, Elena said distractedly. All rightAnd then she saw.Without an instants hesitation she strode across the room to the desk and picked up a pen with a brilliant silver plume. It wasnt a genuine quill pen, of course it was a fountain pen made to look elegant and old-fashioned with a plume. The pen itself was curved to fit her hand, and the wood felt warm.Elena, I dont feel veryDamon, shhh, Elena said, ignoring him, too absorbed in what she was doing to really hear. First try to write. No go. Someth ing was blocking the cartridge. Second unscrew the fountain-pen carefully, as if to refill its cartridge, while all the time her heart was clamoring in her ears and her hands were shaking. Keep moving slowlydont miss anythingfor Gods sake dont let anything rowlock away and bounce in this dimness. The two parts of the pen parted in her handand onto the dark green desk pad fell a small, heavy, curved piece of metal. It had just fit inside the widest part of the pen. She had it in her hand and was reassembling the pen before she could get a good look at it. But thenshe had to open her hand and see.The small crescent-shaped object dazzled her eyes in the light, but it was just like the description Bonnie had given Elena and Meredith. A tiny representation of a fox with a nominal body and a jewel-encrusted head that sported two flat ears. The eyes were two frothy green stones. Emeralds?Alexandrite, Damon said in a bedroom whisper. Folklore has it that they change color in candlelight o r firelight. They reflect the flame.Elena, who had been leaning back against him, recalled with a drape the way Damons eyes had reflected flame when he had been possessed the bloodred flame of the malach of Shinichis cruelty.So, Damon demanded, how did you do it?This is really one of the two pieces of the fox key?Well, its hardly something that belongs in a fountain pen. Maybe its a Crackerjack prize. But you went right to it the moment we entered the room. Even vampires need time to think, my precious princess.Elena shrugged. Its too easy, actually. When it was clear that all those harp keys were no goes, I asked myself what else was an instrument that youd find in someones house. A pen is a writing instrument. Then I just had to find out whether Lady Fazina had a study or writing room.Damon let out a breath. Hells demons, you little innocent. You know what Ive been looking for? Trap doors. Secret entries to dungeons. The only other instrument I could think of was an instrument o f torture and youd be surprised at how many of them youll find in this fair city.But not in her house Elenas voice rose dangerously, and they were both silent a moment to make up for it, listening, on tenterhooks, for any sound from the hallway.There was none.Elena let out her breath. Quick Where, where will it be safe? She was realizing that the one fault of the goddess dress was that there was absolutely no place to hide anything. Shed have to speak to Lady Ulma about that for next time.Down, down in the pocket of my jeans, Damon said, seeming to be as urgent and shaking as badly as she was. When he had jammed it deep into the recesses of his black Armani jeans he caught her by both hands. Elena Do you realize? Weve done it. Weve actually done itI know Tears were leaking out of Elenas eyes and all of Lady Fazinas music seemed to be swelling in one great, perfect chord. We did it togetherAnd then somehow like all the other somehows that were getting to be a habit with them, Elen a was in Damons arms, sliding her own arms under his jacket to feel his warmth, his solidity. She wasnt surprised, either, to feel a double piercing at her throat when she dropped her head back her lovely panther was really only a little tamed, and needed to learn a few basics of dating etiquette such as you kiss before you bite.He had said he was hungry earlier, she remembered, and she had ignored him, too enthralled by the silver pen to put the words together. But she put them together now, and understood except why he seemed to be so exceptionally hungry tonight.Maybe evenexcessively hungry.Damon, she thought gently, youre taking a lot.She could feel no response but the raw hunger of the panther.Damon, this could be dangerousfor me. This time Elena put as much Power as she could into the words she sent.Still no response from Damon, but she was floating now, down into darkness. And that gave her the vague thread of an idea.Where are you? Are you here? she called, picturing the li ttle boy.And then she saw him, chained to his boulder, curled up in a ball, with his fists covering his eyes.Whats wrong? Elena asked immediately, floating near to him, concerned.Hes hurting Hes hurtingAre you hurt? demo me, Elena said instantly.No Hes hurting you. He could kill youHusshh. Husshhh. She tried to cradle him.We have to make him hear usAll right, Elena said. She really was feeling odd and weak. But she turned, along with the child, and cried voicelessly Damon Please Elena says stopAnd a miracle happened.Both she and the child could feel it. The little sting of fangs being withdrawn. The stop of energy flow from Elena to Damon.And then, ironically, the miracle began to take her away from the child, with whom she really wanted to speak.No Wait she tried to tell Damon, clinging to the childs hands as hard as she could, but she was being catapulted back to instinct as if by a hurricane. The darkness faded. In its place was a room, too bright, its one candle blazing like a police searchlight aimed like a shot at her. She shut her eyes and felt the warmth and heaviness of the corporeal Damon in her arms.Im sorry Elena, can you speak? I didnt realize how much There was something wrong with Damons voice. Then she understood. Damons fangs were unretracted.Wha ? Everything was wrong. Theyd been so happy, but but now her right arm felt wet.Elena pulled away from Damon entirely, staring at her arms, which were red and with something that wasnt paint.She was still too worked up to ask questions properly. She slipped behind Damon and pulled his black leather jacket off him. In the brilliant light she could see his black silk shirt marred by line after line of dried, partially dried, or just plain wet blood.Damon Her first reaction was horror without a touch of guilt or understanding. What happened? Did you get in a fight? Damon, tell meAnd then something in her mind presented her with a number. Since she had been a child, she had been able to count. In f act. shed learned to count to ten before her first birthday. Therefore, shed had seventeen full years of learning to count the number of irregular, deep, still-bleeding cuts in Damons back.Ten.Elena looked down at her own bloody arms and at the goddess dress, which was now the horror dress because its pure milky whiteness was marred with brilliant red.Red that should have been her blood. Red that must have felt like sword slashes into Damons back as he channeled the pain and the marks of the Night of her Discipline from her to him.And he carried me all the way home. The thought came swimming in from nowhere. Without a word about it. I would never have known.And he still hasnt healed. Will he ever heal?That was when she started screaming on all frequencies.

Marx and Law

JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY VOLUME 20, NUMBER 4, WINTER 1993 0263-323X Marx and Law ANDREW VINCENT* on that point is no soul in which Marx tin can be set forth as just a sanctioned theorist. He did not write any organized works on judicial science or natural im situationiality however, his observations on practice of practice of uprightness argon both im manpowersely penetrating and contain an extremely subtle interweaving of philosophicalal, political, scotch, and good strands. Marx was withal at the centre of more life-or-death intellectual and political debates of his time.In order to try to unpack roughly of these debates, elucidate his rulings on equity, and retain some altogether everyplaceall clarity, I divide my remarks into five sections, which pass on inevitably overlap. The sections covered argon the paradoxs of discussing Marxist jurisprudence the philosophical background to the analysis of truth and the carry veridicalism, political economy, a nd law stem turn, superstructure, and the ideology of law and closingly, law, politics, and the extract. PROBLEMS OF Marxist JURISPRUDENCE There argon a number of worrys for any student of jurisprudence or politics trying to grasp Marxs approach to law. First, there is the puzzling point that neither Marx nor Engels had a positive normative possible action of law, crime or deviance. In item, ofttimes of the time Marx bulges predisposed hardly to ignore the query of law as peripheral, or at least to treat crime as a symptom of the conflict within a secernate- lay d gived society. He sure as shooting offers no sporty encompassing definition of law. Marxs jurisprudential panorama is often premised upon a critique of law per se, and what he has to say tends to be overwhelmingly ban in character.This is fine if ones purpose is critique and nothing else, exactly it is a definite handicap if one wishes to say something more positive ab pop the spirit of law, law re rea lise rather than its overthrow, or the future of law (e. specially if one believes that law has a future role in society). A second problem re deeplys to the sources for Marxs observations on law. It has al conducty been tick offd that Marx did not control a normative theory of law. It is also open(a) that what he does say ab kayoed law, by re collapseation of negative critique, does not appear in any systematic compriseat. There are works which begin to *School of European Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff CF1 3 YQ, Wales 371 C common basil Blackwell Ltd. 1993. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 JF, UK and 238 Main Street. Cambridge. MA 02142. USA HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 371 1993 say something more systematic, wish well The German Ideology. However, Marx neer allowed its publication in his lifetime and it is commonly dismissed (although not by all writers by any means) as either a work of immature juvenilia or a flawed piece of philosophical polemicist which does not come up 3 to the systematic and scientific standards of Capital.Marx, it is also commonly asserted, had intended to write a work on law and the situate 4 (possibly as an extension of Capital), merely he never realized his ambition. Thus, in consequence, the literary productions and observations on law that we do have are un expandd and essential(prenominal) be picked out from a diverse body of belles-lettres. Marxs books are in accompaniment markedly eclectic and can be almost divided into four often overlapping types first, the early, more philosophicallyinclined pieces, clear more inspired by the German philosopher G.W. F. Hegel. Under this rubric would be included the scotch and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844), The Holy Family (1844), The German Ideology (1845/6), and The Poverty of Philosophy (1847). The second type of writing is the polemical pieces written for position political objectives. The most k at a timen of these is the Communist Manifesto (1847/8). The overt character of these polemical writings- despite their wide dissemination, immense influence, and popularity is their simplification of issues and precepts.This can be a problem in assessing what Marx in homosexuals believed, rather than what he needed to put forward for polemical thrust and cogency. The third group of writings relate to Marxs observations on particular historical events. believably the most famous of these, and the most convoluted and ambiguous, is the eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte(1852). The writings in this context employ Marxs immensely sophisticated method of close historical analysis, although the final upshot of such pieces has given rise to some hostages to fortune especially over the theory of law and the state.The final group of writings settle upon his systematic scotch theories. The most famous of these are the earlier Grundrisse (1857/8) and the posterior Capital (1867-85), which remained incomplete at Marxs death. In sum, Marxs observ ations on law essentialiness be, and usually are, picked out from these diverse writings. It is hardly surprising that there should be oddities, fierce contestation, and discrepancies over such fragments. A related point to the diversity of the above writings is the fact that many commentators on Marx argue that there is a marked shift or break in his perspective.The break usually occurs between the younger and older Marx. The character of the shift, which was called the epistemo logical break by the French Marxist, Louis Althusser, is between an earlier philosophically and morally-inclined Marx, distinctly inspired by Hegel, and the mature Marx, focused on political economy and intent upon constructing 5 an empirically-based amicable and economic science of history and society. This judgement on the musical note between the late and early Marx is often supposed to direct our attention to the late Marx and a consequent dismissal of the early philosophical Marx.In this train ing, Marxs early bear on in alienation is superseded by a kindly scientific theory of economic exploitation. The instruction of a clear heap of the early Marx was perhaps 372 Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 372 1993 partially hampered by the fact that the key early writings the scotch and PhilosophicalManuscripts were not actually discovered and published till the 1920s. Marx veritablely never contemplated their publication during his lifetime.Whether one recurrences the epistemological break seriously or not, there are undoubtedly changes in Marxs perspective on many issues including law. 6 These cannot be ignored by the student of Marx, although what one reads into these changes remains contestable. Another problem concerns Marxs intellectual affinity with Friedrich Engels. There has been a strong tendency in Marxist writings to associate the two men closely with one pristine doctrine. It appears that in fact Marxs definite turn to economics (political economy) was confirmed through and through his initial contact with Engels writings.As editor of the Deutsch-Franziisische Jahrbiicherin Paris, in November 1843, Marx had received an article from Engels, entitled Outline of a followup of Political Economy, which stimulated the economic turn in his own work. Their working relation began a year later in 1844. 1 However, despite their collaborationism on works like The German Ideology and The Communist Manifesto, it is far from clear that we should associate them, especially on questions of their philosophical beliefs or their ulterior cerebrations on law and the state.This point has been made by a number of scholars, although it is still far from resolved. It is clear, for example, that Marx did not formulate a lucid doctrine of materialism, whereas Engels clearly lays out such a doctrine, particularly in popularizing works like Socialism Utopian and Scientific (1880), the Anti-Diihring (1885) and the Dialectics of Nature. Marx nowhere used bounds like dialectical materialism or historical materialism. Neither did he coin terms (which are relevant to the discussion of law) like the withering away of the state.This latter intellection, again, was Engelss terminology from the Anti-Diihring. Marx did not turn over the smell of dialectics to nature itself. His belief remained firmly fixed in the accessible sphere of kind-hearted emancipation. Engels was far more ambitious, some would say foolhardy, extending dialectics to the natural cosmos. The supreme consequence of Engelss doctrine was a virtual reenactment of an older form of mechanical materialism resonant of the French Enlightenment, which Marx had attacked in his early unpublished work, the Theses on Feuerbach.Engelss doctrines later became established in the writings of Lenin, particularly Lenins philosophical work Materialism and Empirio-Criticism and Plekhanovs Materialism Militant, and subsequently it dominated much of the theoretical outpu t of the Second internationalist and the in the lead Marxist party of the time in Germany the Sozialdemokratische ParteiDeutsch cuts(SPD). 9 However, Marxs theory of knowledge, if it can be summarized, hung uneasily between a categorizeical materialism and an individual use of Hegelian rootlism.One can overemphasize the differences between Engels and Marx however, we ignore them at our cost. If we are trying to understand Marx, it is not wise to place too much reliance on Engelss own personal output. One final problem concerns Marxs use of the creation of law itself. There are two terminological points to note here. The first concerns the German 373 D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 373 1993 word, Recht. It is virtually equivalent to the terms jus, droit or diritto, as distinct from lex, loi or legge. This distinction does not actually work in English.Recht in German is not limited to law or jurisprudence but can encompass the issues of civil law, justice, slump, and morality. In Hegel, the initial focus of Marxs interest in law, Recht corporeal the above radixs, but also what he called the ethical life, the state and, ultimately, aspects of world history. In fact, the work on which Marx played out so much time in his early years, Hegels Grundlinien der Philosophiedes Rechts, is sometimes translated as The Philosophy of Law, The Philosophy of the State and, more usually, The Philosophy of Right. 0 It is important to back in mind this ambiguity when considering Marxs observations on law (as Recht) when Marx addresses law, it is not strictly parallel to English usage. The above connects up with the second point, which is often confusing to audiences from the British or Anglo-Saxon level-headed traditions. Hegels work, referred to above, was, as much as anything else, a theory or philosophy of the state. This is encompassed, to some extent, in the broad use of the term Recht. Thus, the treatment of the state magnate be said, inclusi vely, to be also a treatment of law.This kind of approach resonates more with the Roman law and civil law traditions of continental Europe than with the common law tradition of Britain. However, it is worth taking note of this point since it throws a ray of light on some of Marxs writings namely, his critique of the state is to a plumping extent also a critique of law. 2 One small biographical detail could be added here, which might add some substance to this point. When Marx was writing in a more reflective way on the state and law, he was in Germany and France.His early legal training had been in Germany (although he gave it up for philosophy) and he was reflecting and writing within the Hegelian genre. Much later in his life, in the late 1870s, when puzzling over whether to write more on law and the state, he had been living and working for a number of years in Britain, affluent time to pick up on the peculiarities and idiosyncracies of the English legal tradition and its odd relation to the state. This might explain some of his later ambiguities, as opposed to his earlier certainties, on the state. Finally, the interest in Marx on law, despite the ork of the Soviet jurist Evgeny Pashunakis in the 1920s and 1930s, and Karl Renner in Austria, was not really a subject of wide-ranging debate until the 1970s. As Maureen Cain and Alan Hunt have commented the prevailing trend from the 1930s to the 1960s displayed an almost exclusive emphasis on the repressive or arrogant character of law, conceived as the direct embodiment of the interests of the ruling class. In this conception law itself is unproblematic the analysis of legal development or new legislation has the task just now of exposing the class interest 3 contained in them.What was discovered in the 1970s, presumably under the impact of the surge of interest in the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, was the conception of law as ideology and, in consequence, law as a crucial part of the intellectual heg emony of with child(p)ist societies. In this sense, the more wide-ranging and 374 (D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 374 1993 popular interest in Marx on law is a relatively recent development. It is thus very tempting, in dealing with this topic, to refer to the developments in Marxism itself to the present day.The major danger with this path is that the discussion can become wholly enmeshed in the recent material and Marx becomes a distant memory. I have tried to avoid this trap here. Although contemporary developments are not ignored, the principal focus is on Marxs writings. THE PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND TO THE ANALYSIS OF LAW AND THE STATE There are three points to note concerning Marxs philosophical background which are relevant for his later project and his overall under stand of law. First, the premises for his critique of law are derived from his initial philosophical criticism of religion and the state.Secondly, his analysis of the conception of ideology a nd the illusory character of businessperson thought (including law) lies in early analyzes like On the Judaic Question. Finally, his first inkling of the economic roots to tender and political thought can also be free-base in his early essays particularly the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts and his article on Law on thieverys of Wood in the Rheinische Zeitung (1842). 1 take the first two issues as most significant. The last point, to a large degree, follows from the first two.From the late 1830s, Marx had primed(p) to get to know Hegel from beginning to end. 4 Together with Bruno and Edgar Bauer, Arnold Ruge, Max Stirner, and Ludwig Feuerbach (the so-called young Hegelians), Marx studied Hegels works assiduously through the late 1830s and early 1840s. Feuerbach was the most influential figure in the group. Initially he had been a disciple of Hegels philosophy, and in some shipway he never abandoned it. 5 Feuerbach, however, did engage in a dialectical critique of Hege l using Hegels own method to criticize him.Hegels definition of beneficence through its intellection abilities, itemally through the look of Spirit (Geist), is, for Feuerbach, one step short of reality or, at least, it is inverted reality. Hegel explained humanity through consciousness (or mind) however, for Feuerbach, it is sensuous and materially-rooted gentlemans gentleman who think, not some lineation consciousness or mind. The transcendental ego of Kant, the absolute ego of Fichte, or Hegels notion of Spirit (the great themes of German philosophy) were all seen by Feuerbach as sensuous human creations.Thus, the basis of Feuerbachs critique of Hegel is that the latter was offering, unwittingly, an esoteric theology. Humans are not vehicles for Spirit (Geist) rather, humans create the notion of Spirit. In fact, for Feuerbach, humans create God in their own image. Thus, in Hegel, What was a logic of Being becomes in Feuerbach a psychology of human concept formation. 6 Phil osophy, in actuality, reflects human wants and needs. This critique of Hegels ontology was directly related to Feuerbachs equally important critique of religion in The Essence of Christianity. Hegels 375 n Basil Blackel1 I tdHeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 375 1993 philosophy is, in point, interpreted as the last speculative outpost of God. Speculative philosophy and religion needed to be led from the realm of rational abstractions into the realm of sensuous humanity. For Feuerbach, in total, all theology is anthropology. The aline object of religion is not God but idealized humanity. Religion is the alienated form of the individuals recognition of his or her own nature. God is the creation of the human imagination, unknowingly idealizing itself. Thus, Feuerbach claimed that some radical demythologizing was needed.Love of God is really love of humanity in symbolical inverted form. Theology is kind of psychic pathology. The separation between God and humanity is really a separation wi thin humanity itself. Religion is a form of alienation from our essential natures. The demythologizing was to be accomplished by the technique Feuerbach called translateative criticism, namely, the interchanging of the subject and predicate of propositions. For example, an understanding of God is not crucial for understanding humanity conversely, an understanding of humanity is crucial for understanding the idea of God.The real subject is humanity, the predicate is God. These melodic phrases affected profoundly the thinking of the young Hegelians. Marx, particularly, was initially enthralled, but concisely sour to his own critique of the young Hegelians, especially Feuerbach. In his Theses of Feuerbach, he argued that Feuerbachs great achievement had been to bring holy ideas down to earth. However, he had retained an abstract materialism and theoretical humanism. What was needed was a functional humanism and a new understanding of materialism which took account of the social an d economic reality.Philosophy must be moved away from mental abstractions and contemplation into the realm of social, political, and economic realities. Feuerbach was thus also subject to the demystification of transformative criticism. Practical and sensuous humanity, embroiled in economic and social realities, is the real subject, not theoretical humanity. I7 This critique of Feuerbach also forms the basis for Marxs critique of Hegel, religion and, finally, the state and law. It also led him to his crucial life project the subject area 6f political economy. Marx accepted, implicitly, one theme in both Hegel and Feuerbach.Philosophy is about emancipating human beings. History was imbued with teleological significance as to the growing possibility for and realization of thawdom, although this theme become very shrouded in his later writings. Religion purported to be about emancipation however, for Marx, again, the reality was inverted. As he stated The criticism of religion ends with the doctrine that man is the highest being for man. 8 Religion per se could not be overcome by simply d untougheneding peoples attention to its inverted logic (with repayable respect to Feuerbach).For Marx, one had to grasp, critically, the social, political, and economic roots as to why people sought-after(a) consolation in religion. A criticism of religion was, in essence, social and economic criticism. This exactly paralleled his criticisms of Hegels notion of the state. For Hegel, humans were self-constituting and self-producing creatures. There was no sense in which we were simply the passive products of historical 376 D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 376 1993 forces. For Marx, Hegels view was remediate, but again the reality had been inverted.Hegels Geist (Spirit or Mind) was really childbeding humanity. Hegel, for Marx, made the exoteric esoteric. 9 Hegel had grasped the centrality of travail (self-production) but only in its mental form (in conscio usness). Thus, Marx refers to Hegels philosophy as concealed criticism that is still obscure to itself. 20 For Marx, humans produce themselves by actual labour and through the ensuing social relations in the world. Thus, Marx moved from regarding Hegels philosophy as an esoteric psychology gradually to regard it as an esoteric economic dissertation.Hegels philosophy of the state (and law) had a correct content but in an inverted and mystified form. Marx in fact treats Hegels Rechtsphilosophieas summing up German reality at that time (in its mystified form). As Marx put it The criticism of German philosophy of the state and of law which was given its most consistent, richest and final version by Hegel, is the critical analysis of the modem state and the reality that depends upon it. 21 Hegel had argued that humanity and civil society were the product of the state.The state is seen to stand above the conflicts of society. However, for Marx, again the reverse is true. Individuals in c ivil society, embroiled in economic forces and classes, and hedged about by private property rights, produce the state which, of necessity, reflects differential and unequal property relations and powers. Abstract property rights are embodied in the state. The state exists to maintain this interest. The modern state gives people legal rights and freedoms, premised on the idea of humans possessing property.However, such property is of necessity premised upon the alienation and defense mechanism of such freedom to a large proportion of the population. As Marx observed, the critic must now grasp the essential connection of private property, selfishness, the separation of labour, capital and landed property, of exchange and competition, of the value and degradation of man. 22 The logic of private property is the same as that logic of religion. As human beings alienate their essence into God, so workers alienate their essence into the production of goods.Workers, in receipt of wages, on ly secure a small proportion of what they produce. Thus, they alienate their essence into goods which others consume, use or embody in their private property a property upheld by the state and legal system. Moving now to the second point of this section, Marxs early essay On the Jewish Question deals, on the rally, with question of the repeal of legal disabilities for Jews in Germany. The essay is interesting on a number of counts however, one point entrust suffice for the present discussion.Marx directs that the illusions that were to be found in the religious consciousness could also be found in law. The basic point was that humans turned to religion in particular historical circumstances. Young Hegelians, like Bruno Bauer, had argued that the demands for Jewish emancipation precluded genuine emancipation, since the demand was formulated in religious terms namely, Jews. The state, for Bauer, must abolish all religious categories. The secular state provided the real solution fo r Bauer. Marx responded to this by 377 C) Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 377 1993 rguing that religion per se was not the problem, but, rather, the state and legal system itself. Religion is an illusory (if crucially important) pathology, but it is a reflection of a broader illusion pathology within the secular state. A secular state does not free human beings. Rather, the state embodies as many, if not more illusions than religion illusions of secular states are structurally quasi(prenominal), and, in fact, related to religion. As Marx put it, in clean tortuous prose We do not insist that they must abolish their religious limitations in order to abolish secular limitations.We insist that they abolish their religious limitations as soon as they abolish their secular limitations. We do not change secular questions into theological ones. We change theological questions into secular ones. History has for long enough been resolved into superstition we now resolve sup erstition into history We criticize the religious weakness of the political state by criticizing the secular construction of the 23 political state without regard to its religious weaknesses. In short, for Marx, the political world of the secular modern state was as much a tissue of illusions as religion. 4 Underpinning the modern state are the illusions about private property and commerce, and the legal structures which uphold them. The final theme, with regard to his early writing, concerns his essay on the Theft of Wood in the Rheinische Zeitung in late 1842. The Wood Theft essay, as Marx later observed, was the first time that he saw clearly the socioeconomic issues which underpinned law (viewed through the lenses of the changeover from feudalism to capitalism). The common feudal and customary right of gathering wood was effectively being privatized by commercial society.Rural pauperism was itself the product of the redefinition of property as private property. In this sense, law was facilitating capitalism. Oddly, in this essay, Marxs solution was a restoration of older customary rights (although a slightly odd use of them) against the new right of private property. As he put it We reclaim for poverty the right of custom which is not a local one 5 but which is that of poverty in all lands. 2 It is worth noting, though, that many of Marxs early writings do not envisage the abandonment of law or the state.He adopts, in fact, a quasi-natural law or customary law position (from a strictly secularist position), arguing, in essence, that certain newer laws are not really valid or real in the context of what real law ought to be like namely law ought to be, as Marx put it, the positive cosmea of freedom. 26 It is also clear that he was not envisaging the abolition of the state conversely, he anticipated a more radical democratic state upholding the complete rights and freedoms of the masses. In many ways these uasi-natural law themes and radicalization and democratization of the state do not disappear in his later writings rather, they are submerged below the intellectual surface. The surface, in many later writings, becomes more positivist and economic in character however, the underlying themes of human emancipation as a genuine need of human nature, the correct ways in which humans ought to act towards each other, and the future structural character of society, still subsist, but certainly not in any informal or comfortable relation to the positivism. 378 (D Basil Blackwell Ltd.HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 378 1993 MATERIALISM, POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND LAW Marx was a materialist of sorts, although, as pointed out earlier, he never described himself as a historical or dialectical materialist. There are various senses which can be attached to the term materialism. Marx had no interest in materialism in the colloquial sense of a seeking after consumer goods which we might now call consumerism. Neither does he have much interest in mech anistic Enlightenment materialism, seeking to explain humanity via certain mechanical analogies lhomme de machine.Neither strict physical 2 materialism nor behaviouralism were of any interest. 7 Marxs concern with materialism must be set against his reaction to Hegels idealism, as examined in the previous section. Put at its simplest, Marx wanted to insist that human beings must subsist (and labour to subsist) onward they cognitively speculate or think a great deal about their condition. Our social and economic being is thus prior to our reflective consciousness. The material conditions of our lives form the true basis for both our cognitive life and our social and political structures.We can observe here the transformative criticism at work again in the basic rudiments of Marxs thought. The subject is not self-conscious thought, nor is material life the predicate the converse is true. Subject and predicate must be transformed. It is important to bear this method in mind namely, t hat Marx comes to his basic materialist conclusions from a philosophical direction. Marx does not suddenly see the empirical light on some Damascus road or come to such conclusions from empirical observation.His route to such premises is philosophical. One problem here is that even if we focus on Marxs particular type of materialism there are still distinct and competing versions of it. We might call these the stricter and looser versions. We will encounter parallels to this distinction in other areas of Marxs thought and there remains considerable debate as to where Marxs sympathies lay. The stricter materialism might be called unidirectional determinism. Material conditions causally determine thought and political and social structures.This is the dimension that Engels, Lenin, Plekhanov, and Kautsky picked up on, and it reappears in structuralist Marxism, amongst other varieties in the later twentieth century. This materialism looks, and occasionally tries to act more like a natur al science. In some more recent analyses of Marx it is connected to the idea of the epistemological break that is, the mature Marx is the scientist and unidirectional determinist. The alternative looser materialism can be observed in the elusive Marxist doctrine of praxis (where theory and practice have a dependent and reciprocal relation).The basic logic of a praxis debate denies the basic premise of the unidirectionality claim that is, it asserts that reflective thought and consciousness (as embodied in philosophical, economic or legal thought) can actually affect our material conditions. We can accommodate our theory to our practice and vice versa. Put simply, human reflective thought has definite efficacy it is not just an epiphenomenon of the material conditions of life. This form of looser materialism can be observed in some of Marxs 379 Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J.L. & Socy 379 1993 writings and in the subsequent Marxist tradition in writers like Antonio Gramsci, Georg Lukfcs, and Karl Korsch. 29 Such a looser materialism is also more aware of the contestable nature of economic and social categories. The particular form of Marxs materialism is premised on political economy. The basic components of the doctrine can be stated as follows human beings must subsist in order to survive and in so doing they labour. In labouring, humans use certain material technologies (crudely) or modes of production.In working within a mode of production, whether in a medieval rural context with a plough or within a nineteenth century factory with a machine, humans come into relations of production, that is, relations with other human beings within the productive process. Relations of production crystallize into groups called classes whose relations are determined by the particular form or mode of production. As forces of production change, so do relations of production. 3 In capitalism, for example, there are two fundamental classes. Proletarian workers sell th eir labour for a wage. Workers produce more than receive.The wage only provides subsistence. The capitalistic class sells the products of the workers to gain profit. Capitalism thus subsists by extracting labour value from its workforce. The interests of the capitalist class necessarily conflict with those of the proletariat. Thus, material conditions of economic life form the real basis to social existence. Political and legal structures can only be understood via these material conditions. Marx, in one of his more synoptic semi-autobiographical pieces of writing, Preface to the Critique of Political Economy, called this whole 31 process the leading thread of his studies.It is worth remarking at this point that Marxs views on this leading thread have given rise to another debate which parallels the stricter and looser senses of materialism. There are interactional and passive notions of economic reductionism. On the passive view (which corresponds to stricter materialism), law and the state emerge implementally from economic forces. They have no independent efficacy or reality. The state and law are not understood to arise from conscious human intention rather, they reflect the 32 class struggle that takes place in the context of the economic base of society.Many Marxists writers point out themselves uniformly un slack with this form of passive reductionism. 3 3 In this more sceptical reading, Marxs Preface (mentioned above), as well as many works by Engels, are not regarded as adequate representations of the totality of Marxs views. Antonio Gramsci, for example, regularly dismissed this more passive view in the curt forge economism. For such critics, passive reductionism contains an impoverished and simplistic conception of the state and law. It does not grasp the more interactive quality of the state and legal system, and it ignores the conflicts between classes over authority within state.Neither does it explain how the economic base actually determine s law. The actual causal mechanism remains inchoate in Marxs writings. Marxs texts, it is argued, are rife with potential for more interactive readings. However, the Marx of the Preface could reply to this criticism by arguing that such a view is in imminent danger of legal fetishism, where law is seen as both necessary for 380 D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 380 1993 the existence of society and autonomous from economic or class factors. There is nothing curious about law in the passive reductionist reading.However, most exponents of interactionism would not want to argue that law has total indecorum rather, that the law can, in certain circumstances, act upon economic life and can either facilitate or work against a particular mode of production. The ambiguities over these various positions can be observed in Marxs classic account of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. As commercial capitalism slowly develops at the economic base it, of necessity, erod es feudal relations. It is no use to capitalists that a workforce is tied by feudal bonds to a particular aristocratic landowner or piece of ancient property.In addition, communal land (or wood), which all can freely utilize as a common resource, is also deeply inconvenient for capitalism. Property, for capitalists (as in Marxs observations in the wood theft article), must be privately owned and tradable. Labour must also be free of feudal ties in order to travel where the work is needed by capitalists. These processes were distinctly facilitated by coercion and outright violence, as in many cases of enclosure however, as Marx noted, law also expedited the whole process in exploitation sophisticated systems of property law, contract law, and tort.In creating a landless poor (free labour) and a contractual private property-based law, the groundwork for capitalism was gradually laid. The problem is how to read these events. On the one hand, law could be seen (as in the interactive t hesis) as semi-autonomous, providing intentionally the conditions for changes in the mode of production. In fact, it is arguable that law consciously make up the integuments of a mode of production. This argument throws doubt on the unidirectional determinism and passivity thesis.On the other hand, law can be read as a coercive structure representing the actual dominance of the bourgeoisie of the means of production, but determined by the laws of the economic base. In this latter reading, law has no shore leave whatsoever. It simply and instrumentally reflects the economic base. Support for both lines of argument can found in Marx. BASE, SUPERSTRUCTURE, AND LEGAL IDEOLOGY The basic idea of base and superstructure follows neatly from the previous section. In fact, once again, we find similar disputes being echoed from previous sections.One theory sees a precise causal relationship. The other theory sees a looser tendency and more interactive quality in base and superstructure. Thi s latter theory leads some critics to bewail even the use of terms like base and superstructure. It is argued that it would be far better if we interact these terms as more or less useful metaphors, not referring to any empirical reality. 34 As in many of Marxs writings, half the problem here might simply be because Marx never really addressed the problem head on. 5 The terms occur in certain writings, but Marx did not appear to have any inkling of how much significance was going to be placed on them by 381 Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 381 1993 subsequent generations. The older instrumental causal account of base and superstructure sees a clear correspondence between laws and political institutions (superstructure) and the economic base. As Marx put it unequivocally in his Preface to a Critique of PoliticalEconomy With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed.In considering such transformations a distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict Just as our opinion of an individual is not based on what he thinks of himself, so we can not judge such a period of transformation by its own consciousness on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained rather from the contradictions of material life. For example, laws on land tenure in the feudal period (a superstructural phenomenon) changed markedly with the development of capitalism. The real foundation for these changes and the explanation of them would be sought in the actual change in the modes and relations of production the material base. There are a number of minor problems with the above view. First, it is not easy to see how the above thesis explains why certain types of law occur. For example, how, on the above model, would one explain factory legislation, which controlled the activities of capitalists?Alternatively, what of social welfare legislation or legislation which enacts progressive redistributive taxation? Admittedly, it could be replied here that such laws indirectly help capitalism by improving the condition of the working class and preventing revolution, period paying a minimum cost. Thus, despite carriages, such legislation aids capitalism it is in essence still a business proposition. This counter argument might hold for some legislation, but what of other laws which prevent abuse to children, punish rape, or ensure the proper care of the mentally handicapped?What of laws which shape the roles of an official in local or central government or, alternatively, traffic law? Surely it is not as easy to explain these as clearly causally related to the economic base of capitalism. Any attempt to do so would surely look v ery far-fetched. In other words, the instrumental thesis does not account for the totality of law. Secondly, certain legal rules appear to be part of the relations of production, for example, contract law. The relations of production are held together by such contractual rules. They form a kind of social glue for such economic practices.The question arises, therefore, can we separate out contractual law and the relations of production? If the relations of production are constituted by legal vocabulary then there can be no clear determination of the superstructure by the base. Thus, for these, and many other reasons, a number of commentators have felt distinctly uneasy with the instrumental/ causal base superstructure model. 3 7 In fact, Marx did not use the model with any great frequency and late in life Engels also wrote a number of oft-quoted 3s qualifying garner which appear to give a lot of ground to sceptics.As noted above, in the quotation from Marxs Preface, Marx often tende d 382 (C Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 382 1993 to view ideology from a similar causal perspective. One way of viewing an important dimension of the superstructure is as the body of ideas of a society. Marx refers, in the above quotation, to the legal, political, religious, aesthetic, and philosophical ideas of a society. The quotation clearly takes a reductionist and instrumental view of ideology. Ideas are explained via their connection to the material base.Legal ideology is thus, once again, part of the consciousness of bourgeois society, and, as Marx clearly observed Just as our opinion of an individual is not based on what he thinks of himself, so we can not judge of such a period of transformation by its own consciousness. Thus, overt legal ideas and forms tells us virtually nothing substantive they merely reflect deeper economic changes. 39 It is understandable in this reductionist reading that Engels and others should thus have referred to ideology as the false-consciousness of a class like the bourgeoisie.Lawyers might thus be regarded as professional ideologists or waged hacks (in fact like most intellectuals, professional groups, and academics) for the bourgeoisie. Subsequently Marxs ideas came under certain pressures and a number of questions arose 0 In his early writings Marx appeared to be argumentationing ideology with reality as practice a form of philosophical materialist ontology. Liberal capitalism was in an equivalent position to religion as a distortion of the human essence. Later this contrast became ideology (as distortion) as against natural science (as truth or knowledge).The change in perspective here refers, once again, to the idea of an epistemological break in Marxs writings. However, in both these views, it remained unclear as to what to include within the term ideology. In some writings it appeared to be widely inclusive consciousness in general. In other writings he appeared to limit himself to economic an d political ideas. The question arose at the time (which is still unresolved) as to whether natural science was part of ideology or was wholly distinct. Marx also did not explain, as mentioned earlier, the precise mechanisms of determinism.For example, it is not clear (taking A as the economic base and B as legal ideology), whether determine means that A causes B, tends to affect B, or sets parameters to B, or alternatively, whether there is a symbiotic relation of A to B. 41 In strictly practical terms, such corrosive ambiguities do link up to quite ordinary questions on legal activity. As Hugh Collins observes The question is whether a judge follows instrumental considerations with a class character or operates a discrete 42 mode of reasoning. Marxists have gone on struggling with the concept of ideology.Some, like Gramsci, found inspiration in ideas of relative autonomy, which allows some leeway for a discrete mode of legal reasoning. In Gramscis thesis (which for some is present in Marxs writings like the 18th Brumaire), domination under capitalism is not simply achieved by coercion, but, subtly, through the hegemony of ideas. The ideology of the ruling class becomes vulgarized into the common sense of the come citizen. Power is not just crude legal force, but, conversely, domination of language, morality, and culture. Laws, for example, become internalized within the consciousness of 383 Basil Blackwell Ltd.HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 383 1993 each citizen. The masses are quenched and co-opted by this internalization of ideas. The hegemonic ideas become the actual experiences of the subordinate classes. Bourgeois hegemony moulds the personal convictions, norms, and aspirations of the proletariat. Gramsci thus called for a struggle at the level of ideology. Organic intellectuals situated within the proletariat should combat this by developing a counter-hegemony to traditional intellectuals upholding bourgeois hegemony which might be considered as the b asis of a credo for critical legal studies.In sum, this perspective does not consider law as just instrumental. Law does not necessarily uphold the interests of the ruling class and it is not simply determined by the economic base in fact, it may have some counter-determining role on the base itself. These themes will be pursued more intently in the final section. LAW, POLITICS, AND STATE One view of the state and law, which predominates in Marxs writings, is that they are a condensation of the economic interests of the dominant class.The state is thus viewed as the executive committee to manage the affairs of the bourgeoisie. The state acts as its heavy agent in civil society, suppressing proletarian interests in favour of capital accumulation. The staff office of the state owe allegiance to one particular class the bourgeoisie. Lawyers would be viewed as waged lackeys of the bourgeoisie. Law is part of this oppressive mechanism and embodies the ideological mystifications of bou rgeois intellectualism. The bourgeois capitalist class dominates political power hrough its domination of economic power. This is the more traditional view of the state, epitomized in The Communist Manifesto. As Marx stated unequivocally in the latter work Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the 43 economical conditions of existence of your class. The above argument is a form of class reductionism.The bourgeois state and legal system are class-based phenomena. Class, for Marx, refers to large social groups linked together in certain social relations within a mode of production. Each class receives differential rewards, power, and status. Relations between classes tend to be conflictual. Within the instrumental perspective, the state and legal system are seen to condens e the interests of one class. The state is not a representation of any collective good or impartiality. It is, rather, integral to certain specific economic interests in society.Class interests are seen to manage the state apparatus in the interests of that class the bourgeoisie in capitalist society. The history of states is therefore subsumable under class interest. Marx tended, in many writings, to interpret nineteenth-century legislation, particularly in Britain, in such class terms. For example, the passing of the Reform Bill and Ten-Hours Bill, and 384 (D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 384 1993 the repeal of the maize Laws, were seen as aspects of the economic conflict between the bourgeoisie and landed aristocracy.The above view reflects dolefully on a number of issues. First, there does not appear to be any difference between a democratic rule-of-law constitutional state (Rechtsstaat) and an unconstitutional, undemocratic despotism. Both are simply exploi tative class-based entities. The former state simply shields its basic exploitative character more successfully, particularly under guises like the rule of law. Secondly, both the general rule-of-law principle and particular property, contract or criminal laws, are simply there to buttress the property owners of capitalism.The rule of law is a typical example of legal fetishism, namely, giving law a false autonomy from the economic and class base of society. In times of high productivity, the constitutional capitalist state will give the appearance of some concern, via state spending, but it will show its true colours during periods of economic crisis. The first cuts will always be to the welfare of working people. The rule of law is thus an elaborate confidence trick. 45 Thirdly, Marx suggests that the so-called equal rights of liberal states have grossly unequal effects.The rights 4 of human beings are in reality the rights of bourgeois men in civil society. 1 They cling to indi vidual capitalists in their exploitative practices and they protect the unequal economic results of such practices. Rights are associated with individuals who own them in order to protect private interests. Rights thus shield the basic inequalities and exploitative practices of bourgeois culture. Bourgeois culture ignores material inequalities and slavishly adheres to formal legal, moral or political equivalence of rights.Marx found this whole scenario profoundly objectionable. Equally, from the same perspective, the justice that we observe in liberal societies is another aspect of the ideology of capitalism. It concentrates minimally on how goods might be distributed (if it gets as far as distributive justice) and ignores the massive inequalities implicit in the production process itself. In other words, it shuts the stable door after the capitalist horse has bolted. Justice is not a virtue for communists. Marx thus quite explicitly takes an anti-justice and anti-rights stance.Wi th genuine communism, there would be no classes, no coercion, no conflict, and no private ownership in consequence, there would be no need for justice or right claims. If there is abundance and communal ownership, then there is no reason for principles of allocation or any allocating or adjudication mechanisms. In sum, Marx objects, in this reading, to the whole notion of the juridical legal state as a complex sham. As law is integral to the idea of the state in Marx, so the antistatist stance of communism implies the abolition of law.The traditional account above is not without some internal ambiguity, particularly over notions like the dictatorship of the proletariat. This latter doctrine envisages the state as not so much a negative, coercive, backwardlooking institution, as rather an instrument of positive revolutionary change utilized for the benefit, ultimately, of humanity (even if it is still viewed as a transitional entity). Marxs own qualified fervour for the state can be observed, even in Capital,where he remarked enthusiastically on the work of 385 0 Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. Socy 385 1993 the Factory Inquiry Commission in Britain, specifically the work of Leonard Horner, as rendering undying service to the English working class. He Leonard Horner carried on a life-long contest, not only with the embittered manufacturers, but also with the Cabinet. 47 Marx later commented, with evident relish, that British manufacturers compared the factory inspectorate 4 8 with revolutionary commissioners of the French National Convention. However, this was hardly a negative coercive vision of a class-based state functioning only in the interests of the bourgeoisie.The stricter class view of the state and law also suggests that if there were no class there would, in turn, be no law and no state. Class conflict is the prerequi locate of the state. This view was later crystallized in Lenins work, The State and Revolution. This idea, in turn, gives ri se to the idea (initiated by Engels and carried on by Lenin, although many would contend it was also present in Marx) that the state and legal order will wither away. In this sense a communist society would be stateless and lawless (in a strictly descriptive sense).Thus, from the standpoint of a strict materialism, the state is not a major player. The end. result of this looks very much like communist anarchism, although Marx himself argued fiercely against such a conclusion and showed only vitriolic contempt for anarchists like Proudhon and Bakunin. However, Marx never resolved this issue of the relation between communism and mainstream anarchism. However, the class reductionist and instrumental perspective does not represent the totality of Marxs writings. Let us take the question of class first.Class, in certain works, is seen as more complex, fragmented, and containing fractions with no overt connection to political or legal domination. The state and its legal system, in this re ading, clearly does not embody the interests of a ruling class. In addition there can be, as Marx demonstrated with great verve in the 18th Brumaire, intra-class conflict between fractions. Marx mentions four fractions within the bourgeoisie who often conflict landed property, the financial aristocracy, the industrial bourgeoisie, and commercial bourgeoisie.In addition, the lumpenproletariat are kept separate from the proletariat, and the petit larceny bourgeoisie from the peasantry. As one commentator has remarked, the recourse to fractions of classes . . . indicates that . . . class is not a sufficiently precise concept to be of value in explaining particular events. 49 Law, in this fraction perspective, can actually become a site of class struggle. 50 Laws are therefore not always oppressive in the interest of one class. In fact, many laws can benefit the working class, for example, factory legislation. Certain laws also result from pressures from multifarious groups outside soci al classes. In addition, the notion of class remains deeply ambiguous since Marx nowhere explains its precise relation to property ownership. The doubts over the relation between class and state, sketch in the 18th Brumaire,led Marx to suggest that in the conditions that pertained in France in the period 1848-50, the state did not represent any bourgeois fractions, or even the bourgeoisie in general. In fact, Marx contends that the state and law may work against the interests of the bourgeoisie. 52 This effectively under386 D Blackwell Basil Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 386 1993 ined both the idea of the direct synonymity of class to law and state, and also the necessity of class for analysing the state (although both these views are strongly maintained by Marx in The Communist Manifesto, amongst other writings). It is these qualifying arguments of Marx which enabled the development of what is now called state autonomy theory, which has powerfully shaped late twentieth-century Marxist studies. The theory, in varying degrees, sees the state and law as a factor of cohesion, a site of struggle between fractions of classes, and an institution which may even regulate class conflict.The basic point is that legal reasoning takes on a relative autonomy from the economic base of society. It is not totally to be explained via modes or relations of production. This relative autonomy thesis might make us consider anew the curt dismissals of notions like the rule of law. Certainly a number of recent commentators have picked up on this theme in Marx, suggesting that the theory of unidirectional determinism of base and superstructure does not really work for explaining the nature of law itself.Laws are actually integral to certain types of relations of production. E. P. Thompson, following this line of thought, has spoken of law in eighteenth-century England as deeply imbricated within the very basis of productive relations, which would have been inoperable without law . He continues that we cannot simply separate off all law as ideology, and assimilate this also to the state apparatus of a ruling class. 53 Taking on board the Gramscian thesis of ideological hegemony being a sphere of struggle, Thompson contends that disputes are fought out in the sphere of law.Law certainly still expressed class power however, part of the success of legal ideology itself was its appearance of impartiality. As Thompson notes, law cannot seem to be so without its own logic and criteria of equity indeed, on occasion, by actually being just even rulers find a need to legitimize their power, to moralize their functions, to feel themselves to be useful and just. 54 The rhetoric was not therefore empty, even if it was still rhetoric. Semi-autonomous legal logic was thus often used against dominant groups which was precisely a central aspect of Marxs argument in the 18th Brumaire.Thus, for Thompson, law does not equal raw class power. It was certainly involved in class power and it redefined property rights in undermining feudalism, but its focus was not exclusively on class interest. Its own logic and rhetoric gave it a partial autonomy which inhibited, in some cases, the dominant groups. It was also a site of struggle between fractions of these dominant groups. As Thompson concludes, such a notion of the rule of law is markedly different from arbitrary despotism. It is, in fact, he notes, a cultural achievement. 5 The effort to hold open Marx from his anti-statist and anti-law stance, via some notion of relative autonomy, has also had other defenders. Some critics have found in Marxs early writings a number of themes which add retain this vision. For example, in one of his early writings, Marx speaks -oflaw as the positive, bright and general norms in which freedom has attained to an existence that is impersonal, theoretical and independent of the arbitrariness of individuals. A peoples law book is its Bible of freedom. 56 He also 387 Basil B lackwell Ltd. HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 387 1993 makes favourable noises, at points, about customary law established over 7 time, as against the new laws of the bourgeoisie. 5 Others have noted, with surprise, that Marx draws distinctions between real and unreal law. For example, on the same page of the article referred to above, Marx speaks of law becoming active as soon as it is transgressed for it is only true law when in it the unconscious natural law of freedom becomes the conscious law of the state. Where law is true law, i. . where it is the existence of freedom, it is the true existence of the freedom of man. Thus laws cannot prevent mans actions, for they are the inner laws of life. Paul Phillips remarks on this point that The significance of this distinction is that it posits the existence of an order superior to that of mere man-made law 58 and, to that extent, it is a Natural Law Theory. Marx, even in his later writings, appeared to believe that there is a condition o f freedom and wholeness for human beings, where their real natures will flourish.There is, as one critic has put it, a myth of transparency in Marx (as in Hegel) this is the vision of a society in which something standing behind the set of available social roles and relations will be revealed in a social order which will have become obvious to the participants. 59 This notion of positive freedom, wholeness, and perfectibility behind the veil, is both implicit in the discussion of alienation (in the earlier writings), and restlessly present just under the surface of the later discussions of exploitation and communism. This vision of freedom is subtly linked to Marxs strong (if unstated) communitarianism, namely, his deeply-rooted belief that humans are social creatures and can only develop freely within a particular type of community. This is the community which is distorted and lost in capitalism and will be recovered in communism. Humans are meant to develop historically toward s uch a society. Marx did not like to be associated with such a view, since it smacked of romantic utopianism. However, it is undeniably there throughout the corpus of his writings. craziness is a prime example of such erfectibility lost and regained. The notion developed initially in a theological context. Humans were alienated from God through their sin. In Hegel, the alienation is philosophical spirit (or mind) externalizes itself in the world. It becomes alien to itself. The task of thought is to overcome the self-alienation of spirit, to perceive itself at home in the world. Overcoming alienation is realizing that the world is not alien to our thought. For Feuerbach, however, the real alienation is that human beings have placed their essence into either God or the Hegelian Spirit.To overcome alienation is to transform the subject and object to realize that God is idealized humanity. For Marx, on the other hand, alienation takes on a number of subtle forms. 61 The basic idea is that human alienation is more immediate and practical, and subsumes all the other notions. In discussing the topic, Marx speaks initially of alienation through labour. Labour creates capital and capital escapes the control of labour and takes on a supposedly independent existence, which in turn dominates the original producer. Workers thus find they are alienated from the product of 388 (D Basil Blackwell Ltd.HeinOnline 20 J. L. & Socy 388 1993 their labour. Labour, in this capitalist context, is no longer free and creative. It is necessary for subsistence and thus exercises alien compulsion over the worker. In consequence, workers are alienated from free creativity (which is the true nature of human beings) and they are thus also alienated from their fellow human beings. Overcoming human alienation implies ultimately overthrowing the economic and social forms which generate the exhalation of reality and the self. The solution to the riddle of history and human alienation is commu nism. 2 There is strong sense here of a definite underlying human nature, with certain specifiable needs, which can flourish under a specific type of community, which recognizes certain natural laws, not necessarily as overt imperatives from some external authority, but more as natural non-coercive norms derived from reason. Despite Marxs appearance as an anti-law theorist, some writers have claimed that it is possible to identify a communist theory of law and justice, and also, possibly, of state (given Marxs early interest in a radical democratic participatory state). 3 In certain writings, particularly The Critique of the Gotha Programme, Marx does indicate that there would be a principle of justice under communism from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. 64 Such a notion of justice would presumably prevent unequal access to the means of production and also prohibit alienation and exploitation. It would also respond distributivelyto human needs alth ough Marx leaves the concept of need fairly open. Needs for social relations, satisfying labour, and the like, move well beyond physical subsistence.It is difficult not to consider some of Marxs needs as wants or interests, which are surely markedly different notions. Tom Campbell, amongst a number of recent theorists, believes that we can reconcile Marxs historicism, and aspects of a looser materialism, with a belief in communist justice and the moral superiority of such a society. He di