Socialist Law
Socialist Law
The Socialist Family
•
Socialist law is based on Marxian
philosophy.
•
It is the official name of the legal system of
Communist states.
•
Socialist law is mostly influenced from
civil law system, with major modifications and additions from Marxist-Leninist
ideology.
Socialist law
•
However, there is fundamental difference
between civil law family and socialist family of law.
•
The objective of law in civil law family
has been defining the notion/concept of private property (the method of
acquiring property, its transfer and protection, while Socialist legal systems
see the concept of private property as the source of all evils.
•
Socialist Legality postulates (assume)
that in a socialist society, the law should serve as a tool to promote the
development of socialism.
•
Function
of law is to protect the socialist goal, repress the reactionaries and teach
the people about socialist goal.
•
Marxists view that law existing in a given
society is determined by its socio-economic system.
•
It is the superstructure standing on
economic sub-structure.
•
In
a society with private property there are two classes the haves and have not's.
•
The development of law is connected with
class struggle or class contradiction, socio-economic inequality and consequential
result of political relations of domination and suppression.
Socialist view of law
•
Karl Marx views that the whole reality
of the world is irrecoverable objectively and anything spiritual, ideal or
conceptual is merely a reflection of the particular material reality.
•
All the ideas; the religion, moral philosophy,
art and whole stock of political and legal rules and institutions (collectively
called the state and the law) are not independent at all.
•
They do not derive from any given
eternal and unchangeable idea of law and justice.
•
They are parts of superstructures, which
simply reflect the economic foundation and relation of productions especially
serving as tool, which the ruling class uses to maintain its existing position
of power in society and the economy.
•
Law
has no independent identity or autonomy.
•
Economic foundation/base changes alter
through history by dialectical leaps.
•
New forces of productions arise, develop and
spread the contradictions with existing relations leading to revolutionary
change in relations of production.
•
This also brings change in the in the
superstructure like law.
•
State and law are identical. There is no
law without state and there is no state without law;
•
State and law are two different words
designating the same thing.
•
The law is an instrument, which in the
class struggle safeguards the interests of the ruling class and maintains the
social inequality for its own profit.
•
The basis of socialist law is Marxism,
Leninism, (dialectical and historical materialism.
•
Society starts in condition where no
legal system is needed because all property is owned in common.
•
Society develops through the slave
owning society, feudal society and then capitalism, socialism and communism.
•
In communism, there will be no need of
law because all economic contradictions are resolved and all exploitation of
man by man will be ended.
•
The state and legal order will than die
away, for they will have no functions left.
Role of law
•
In the society with private ownership
law is an instrument used by the ruling class or haves to dominate the have
not's.
•
After the establishment of socialist
state in the leadership of proletariat (working class) law serves the interest
of the people or working class.
•
It is an intermediate period and role of
law will be important in assuring, stabilizing and molding social conditions.
•
Marxists view that the leaders of the
communist party alone have the necessary training and education to make law appropriate
for leading the society in the right direction i.e. toward socialism.
•
Practice of law is tied to this
principle of socialist legality (using law for development of society toward
socialism).
Double edge of law
•
All these engaged in applying laws, must
always act in harmony with the objective legality of social development as
interpreted by communist party.
•
Law has two functions; repression
(repressing the reactionaries and education (educating the people).
•
It is called the double edge of law -sfg"gsf
b'Owf/ hgtfnfO{ lzlIft agfpg] / k|ltlqmofjfbLnfO{ bdg ug]{_.
Marxist view of law
•
All state machinery are used to
disseminate the ideas of capitalist system to sustain it.
•
In socialist society, the situation is
just opposite; there will be no exploitation is as the means of production are
brought into collective ownership.
•
Marxists’ view that; the history of
human-society is the history of class struggle.
•
In the struggle the turning point is
marked by the victories of the exploited/working class.
•
Then the means of production will be
owned collectively and they will be exploited for the common interest.
•
Finally, classless society will be
created and the law will have no relevancy and wither away.
•
After the victory in revolution under
the leadership of proletariat/working class the state power comes under the
control of communist party
•
The role of law will also be
changed (socialist stage), law will be
an instrument of creating communist (classless) society.
•
It is the means of transforming the
society toward the communist ideal (the classless society with true liberty).
•
In socialist stage it is an instrument
of new ruling class for changing the society from capitalism to socialism.
Function of law
•
All the means of production are brought
under the control of the state. (There will be private property like house,
furniture, kitchen garden and utensils etc., the properties under the ownership of community
for collective use like agricultural firms, factories and forests and property
owned by the state like larger industries, hospitals, large agricultural
firms).
•
The Second function of socialist law is
educative i.e educating people about the role of state and their duties toward
the regime.
•
Punishing people for breaking socialist
law means educating them.
•
The third function of law is to repress
the reactionaries who try to revive their heaven or system of exploitation. (The
function of law in capitalist society is to preserve the capitalist system, the
function of socialist law is to protect the socialist system.
•
Law aims at repressing the activities
that harm the socialist institutions.
Law withers away
•
In the course of development, communist
or classless society (society without exploitation) emerges
•
In classless society, no state and law will be
needed and state and law will wither away.
•
However, in social period (radical
transformation from capitalist to communist society) there will be the
dictatorship of the proletariat.
•
Law
will be used by the proletariat class for building communism.
Sources of socialist law
•
As per the Marxian view law is not
independent branch of knowledge but based on socio economic structure of society.
•
Thus the sources of law are not
independent from source of power and authority.
•
The fundamental source of socialist
law is composed of two factors; first the collectivization of means of
production and second establishment of dictatorship of proletariat.
•
The basic source of socialist law is the
Marxist and Leninist principle.
•
Since the law is necessary for the
execution of socio economic objective of the state based on Marxist Leninist
philosophy it is natural for the law being influenced from this philosophy.
•
The decisions of the convention of the
communist party are another important source of law.
•
Other sources of law are legislation,
constitution, codes, customs, international conventions, and the writings of
Marxists authors.
Comments
Post a Comment