Just a decade ago, leading historians described human rights as the lingua franca of our time. Such diagnoses have rapidly become obsolete, as human rights – alongside democracy and international law – now face increasingly severe challenges from war, xenophobic authoritarianism, growing inequality, disinformation, and hybrid warfare. This panel explores the Marxist critique of law and the state in light of the post-liberal era we now inhabit.

Marxist theory has long posed questions that speak directly to our current predicament: What are the limits of the rule of law and representative democracy under capitalism? What distinguishes feudal from capitalist states? How does the rule of law relate to emergency powers and dictatorship? What would be the status of law and rights under communism? And should human rights be defended when under threat—and if so, why, how, to what extent, and by whom?

Yet the Marxist critique of law and the state is also marked by significant politico-theoretical differences, which will serve as a point of convergence for the panel. In particular, during the rapid expansion of the field of law and Marxism over recent decades, two genealogies have served as its primary sources: the theorization of the relationship between the legal form and the commodity form, rooted in the work of Soviet legal theorist Evgeny Pashukanis in the 1920s-1930s; and the theorization of the relative autonomy of law, developed within the Franco-Italian theoretical strand and the thought of Greek-French social theorist Nicos Poulantzas developed in the 1960s-70s. By exploring the key divergences and points of contact between the Pashukanian and Poulantzasian genealogies – which are often seen as opposed – the panel seeks to demonstrate the continued relevance of the Marxist critique of law and the state in the (new) age of authoritarianism. 

On behalf of the Political Theory Workshop, join us on September 26th to hear the University of Pennsylvania's Rafael Khachaturian and Carl Wilén of Lund University discuss these questions and more!