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Donna Kline's contribution to the Sovietica series falls outside the strict confines of the study of Soviet Marxism-Leninism. It centers its attention on the seemingly minor question of Marx' knowledge of and attitude toward the legal theory and practice in vogue at the time he was writing studies that directly addressed issues of law and economics, and that indirectly helped to fashion the legal and economic behavior of Soviet-style regimes. That this question is not as minor or as irrelevant to Marxism-Leninism as it might seem at fIrst glance flows from Marx' obvious intent to do a thorough critique of all the vectors of 'bourgeois-capitalist' civilization and culture, clearly expressed in the many key texts, where 'legal relations' form at least part of the central focus. Marx' thought was forming when the 'bourgeois' law that had become self-conscious at the end of the 18th century was, following the French Revolution, trying to 'take possession' of the social-political consciousness of European-American culture, and fInding itself coming up against the 'vagaries' of economic quasi-anarchy. There is a sense in which the 'bourgeois-capitalist' efforts at developing a legal code for existing economic practice represent a sort of 'ideology in practice' to be applied to the same phenomena that Marx wanted to account for in his peculiarly Hegelian ideological critique.
List of contents
One An Analysis of Marx' Description of the Will Theory of Law.- I. Introduction.- II. Marx' University Study.- III. Textual Indications of Attribution.- IV. Analysis of the Will Theory of Law.- V. Analysis of the Key Passage.- VI. Hegel, Savigny, and Locke as Will Theorists.- Two An Examination of the Accuracy of Marx' Description of the Will Theory.- I. Thesis I (Legal Tide and Economic Reality).- II. Thesis V (Contract as Accident).- III. Theses VI and VII (Contract and FreeWill).- IV. Conclusion.- Three Duress and FreeWill in Nineteenth-Century Contract Law.- I. Introduction.- II. A General Review of the Doctrine of Freedom of Contract.- III. The Historical Context.- IV. Survey of the Law of Duress and Undue Influence.- V. Outline of the Law of Duress and Undue Influence from 1820 to 1870.- VI. Contract Law and Will Theory.- Four An Examination of the Accuracy of Marx' Description of the Law.- I. Contracts as Accidental.- II. Contracts as Acts of Free Will.- III. Principles of Contract Law.- IV. Normative Statements in the Case Law.- V. Conclusion.- Five An Analysis of Marx' Criticism of Nineteenth-Century Commercial Law.- I. Introduction.- II. Criticism of the Basis Will Theory.- Appendices.- A Discussion of Dawson's Theories.- B Facts of Various Cases.- C Encyclopedia of Law Analysis.- Notes.
