“Law and Marxism” is the fourth session of The New School’s LPE Night School. It will be a conversation between Rafael Khachaturian and Igor Shoikhedbrod.
What does Marxism have to teach us about law? Does law always reflect the interests of the ruling class, and if so, why does it take on a universal, general form under capitalism? What role–if any–would law have in a socialist or communist society? Marxist approaches from the nineteenth century to the present have grappled with these questions, resulting in a rich theoretical legacy. During this session, the presenters will draw on their work in progress, The Revolution of Law: Developments in Soviet Legal Theory, 1917-1931, to reflect on the challenges associated with revolutionary transformation, the possibilities unleashed, as well as roads not taken, and the differences between liberal and Marxist approaches to law under conditions of revolutionary transition.
The Night School is a collaboration between LPE NYC and the Politics department of the New School for Social Research, designed to introduce non-lawyers to law from a critical perspective. From growing inequality to further entrenching hierarchies of race, class, gender and identity, law is inextricably bound up with many of our most pressing problems. But dominant ways of analyzing law can obscure its role in social and economic life. LPE (‘Law and Political Economy’) approaches seek to show the way the law structures our distinctive political economy in order to elaborate better tools for making social change.
This series brings together scholars and practitioners for public lectures and conversations on selected legal topics. Each session offers a critical exploration of an important issue in contemporary law and policy. Taken as a whole, the series offers a survey of major questions in critical legal thought and advocacy.
The series is designed to complement the minor in Law and Social Change at Eugene Lang, but it is open to everyone. Organizers, advocates, and others not currently enrolled in full-time degree programs are encouraged to attend.