Please take time out of your busy schedule to click "Follow", convenient to discuss and share with you, your support is my biggest driving force, thank you!
The legal thought of Marx's "Rheinische Zeitung" period was the beginning of Marx's historical materialist jurisprudence and the foundation period for Marx to establish his own unique legal philosophy world view. During this period, Marx wrote many works with enthusiasm for theoretical study and the expectation of changing the dark status quo of German society in the work of the editor of the "Rheinische Zeitung", in which legal thought is an important part, and in the continuous practice of social life, Marx established a new legal thought system based on law.
The Rheinische Zeitung period
The Rheinische Zeitung was founded in early 1842 by the representative of the radical bourgeoisie in Cologne at that time, a wealthy businessman in industry and commerce, with the original intention of reflecting the needs of the emerging bourgeoisie at that time, strengthening the influence of bourgeois demands on public opinion, and hoping that it would become the mouthpiece of the Prussian bourgeoisie.
In terms of time span, the Rheinische Zeitung period refers to the period from April 1842 to March 1843, when Marx wrote editorials and articles for it as editor of Rheinische Zeitung, and later, because the ruling class of Germany was not accustomed to the "straightforward" criticism of legal and social issues in the "Rheinische Zeitung", on the grounds that the content of the "Rheinische Zeitung" tried to disturb social order and threaten the stable rule of Prussia, the "Rheinische Zeitung" was closed The period is over.
However, when studying the legal thought of Marx's "Rheinische Zeitung" period, we cannot analyze this period alone, which is a kind of separation of Marx's legal thought in this period, and when analyzing Marx's legal thought in this period, we must relate to Marx's youth, which is a key stage for Marx to establish ideals and beliefs, and has a profound impact on the legal thought of the "Rheinische Zeitung" period.
The raging wave of bourgeois revolution
The 17th and 18th centuries were a period of drastic changes in world history, and feudalism in the Western world was gradually unable to adapt to the new production relations brought about by the development of productive forces, and its existence seriously hindered the progress of the capitalist economy.
In 1689, Britain established a constitutional monarchy, which limited the power of the crown through laws to achieve the purpose of limiting feudalism; In 1781, after winning the War of Independence, the United States finally got rid of British colonial rule, got rid of the influence of feudal autocracy, and established a republic with separation of powers through the formulation of a constitution; In 1793, in the midst of the French Revolution's struggle against feudal autocracy, Robespierre passed a series of revolutionary acts, followed by the promulgation of the French Civil Code in 1804, which dealt a heavy blow to the feudal absolutism in other European countries, while demonstrating to the world the unparalleled power of the masses of the people.
The victorious results of the bourgeois revolution in Britain, the United States and France are quite consistent, they all first obtained the power to legislate at the legal level, and put it into action, promulgated laws suitable for the development of capitalism, and the national strength of these three countries has thus developed rapidly, it is precisely seeing these results, Marx began to seek ways to transform society from the legal level, although Marx's legal thought in the "Rheinische Zeitung" period has not completely got rid of the influence of bourgeois idealistic jurisprudence. But through his constant participation in socio-political life, Marx had begun a turn in historical materialist jurisprudence.
The emerging bourgeoisie not only demanded political independence, but also ideologically, the Enlightenment was another great anti-feudal ideological emancipation movement of the bourgeoisie after the Renaissance. The core of the Enlightenment is to advocate people to respect their own "reason" and use reason to dispel ignorance, and Enlightenment thinkers believe that freedom, democracy and equality are the essential pursuit of human "reason" and indelible God-given rights.
Under the influence of the Enlightenment thought, the seeds of freedom and reason began to slowly germinate in people's hearts, and with the increasing brutality of feudal autocracy, the oppressed and exploited people also needed an idea to guide them in their resistance struggle, so the Enlightenment made ideological and theoretical preparations and public opinion propaganda for the bourgeois revolution in Europe.
Marx lived in a time when Germany was relatively backward in Europe, he was eager to find a way to change the status quo of society, in addition to learning from the victorious experience of bourgeois revolutions in other countries, he was also deeply influenced by Enlightenment ideas, he realized that revolution not only needs to arm hands, but also need to arm the mind, under the guidance of this basic view, Marx began to explore social and political life and study related legal issues during his tenure at Rheinische Zeitung.
The law should be in line with man's quest for "freedom."
In the 19th century, Germany was facing both economic and political difficulties, the restoration of the feudal system and the rise of the emerging bourgeoisie made the foundation of German rule devastated by fierce political struggles, the people were lifeless, and social life was full of contradictions. In this case, the wind of freedom blown by the Enlightenment and the bourgeois revolution, although it could not eliminate the dark and decaying remnants of the feudal autocracy, but brought the spiritual impetus for the pursuit of free reason for German academia.
In his article "Commenting on Prussia's Recent Book and Newspaper Censorship," Marx attacked the German ruling class's long-standing despotism. The censorship of books and newspapers of 1842 prescribed the form and content of creation for all editorials, and if there was any trespass, what awaited them was imprisonment, Marx believed that this was an authoritarian law, and on the surface people still had the right to create freely, but because this decree prescribed a scope, a model, the free human spirit was bound.
The law cannot be used for private gain
In the era of no law, human beings produce and live in the way of families and ethnic groups, family law and family rules are the criteria for judging the merits, with the development of productive forces and production methods, production relations bring about the breeding of power, family law and family rules gradually become law, and due to the concentration of power, law gradually becomes a tool for individuals to benefit themselves.
In "The Debate on the Law of Forest Theft", Marx defined the act of the poor to pick up dead branches of trees as a legitimate customary right, the right of the poor to harvest the dead branches that fell from the trees for their own use, and the owner of the forest in vainly trying to exploit the poor, which in Marx's view was a privilege. Law is developed from customary rights, legitimate customary rights are the guarantee of the legitimacy of the law, in the face of the more general customary rights of the poor, the abuse of the ownership of forest trees by individual aristocratic landlords has become a privilege, a trampling on the legitimacy of the law, at this time "interests prevail over the law".
From Marx's point of view, it is not difficult to find that he believes that the law should not be influenced by private interests, at the national level, the law controlled by private interests represents that the state has lost credibility, the state has become a tool for monopoly interests of individuals, legislation will inevitably be centered on private interests, once legislation loses its impartiality, then the law will inevitably move towards autocracy, can not represent the general interests of society, and thus loses its role in regulating the entire society.
Properly handle the relationship between substantive law and procedural law
Marx in the time of the Rheinische Zeitung believed that the relationship between substantive law and procedural law is the same as the relationship between content and form, just as the internal structure of all matter and the connection of external manifestations are connected, they share the same soul, the same spirit. Marx pointed out that trial procedure is the form of existence of law, which embodies the intrinsic value of law.
At the same time, he also stressed that procedural law should be the external expression of the content of substantive law, should conform to the core of values pursued by the content of substantive law, and is the external expression and guarantee of the spirit of substantive law. The condition for avoiding this is to pay attention to the construction of the content of substantive law, and stipulate the content and value pursuit that are in line with it according to the relationship to be adjusted by the law in different fields.
This is Marx's exposition on the relationship between substantive law and procedural law, which generally means to take the content of substantive law as the norm and use procedural law to regulate. In fact, in the article "Debate on the Law of Forest Theft", Marx had already noticed the relationship between substantive law and procedural law, and in the debate with the aristocratic lords in the provincial council, Marx had realized that these feudal nobles controlled the entire parliament, and the toiling masses had no say in the parliament.
The fundamental cause of this problem is the law of feudal autocracy, because the content of the substantive law is feudal autocracy and seeks benefits for private individuals, then its procedural law on the composition of parliamentary participants must also serve feudal autocracy and private interests, and unjust content inevitably leads to form injustice. For this reason, when Marx fought against the feudal aristocracy, what Marx wanted to accomplish was not only a victory in a debate, but also a transformation of the content of substantive law, which was also Marx's great exploration to find a new legal path.
Carry out the construction of socialist rule of law based on the principle of "humanism"
Marx wrote down his career plan and life pursuit in "Considerations of Youth in Choosing a Career": he earnestly hoped that through litigation and debate of dispute cases, he would punish evil and promote good, uphold justice, benefit mankind, and also achieve perfection in the process of striving for the perfection and happiness of his contemporaries. From this, we can see that Marx's jurisprudence was originally and the most basic pursuit - to seek the welfare of the broadest masses of the people, which profoundly embodies Marx's "humanistic" legal thought.
In fact, after officially entering the magnificent political life, Marx also continued to unswervingly put this beautiful wish and pursuit into practice: in the debate against Prussia's latest censorship of books and newspapers, Marx spoke out for freedom of the press, and the defense of freedom of the press is the defense of the general freedom of man; In the debate with the feudal aristocracy at the Sixth Rhine Provincial Assembly on whether picking up dead branches was theft, Marx called for the basic customary rights of the poor people, attacking the privileges of the aristocracy, arguing that only the customary rights of the toiling masses could be legitimate.
In the Draft Law on Divorce, Marx strongly attacked the religious marriage system, believing that increasing the difficulty of divorce is a violation of basic human rights, and people should enjoy the right to divorce relatively freely; In The Defense of the Mosel Reporter, Marx investigates the living conditions of viticulture farmers along the Mosel River, and is angry that the poor peasants are dragged down by a rotten bureaucracy. So far, Marx's deeper and deeper understanding and mastery of the material life of society has provided favorable objective conditions for his turn in legal theory.
epilogue
Marx's "Rheinische Zeitung" period legal thought is the 19th century enlightenment thought and revolutionary thought of the development and inheritance, is the preparation stage to create a great legal miracle, throughout the history of the development of Marxist legal thought, this period is strongly dialectical and groundbreaking, the author hopes to make the entire Marxist legal system have a complete and solid theoretical foundation through the interpretation and application of legal thought in this period.
In the process of constantly participating in social and political life, Marx gradually completed the turn of his legal thinking, which was the only way for Marx to create historical materialist jurisprudence, and it was also the inevitable way. Marx's philosophical outlook from subjective idealism at the beginning to objective idealism to historical materialism, in which objective material conditions accounted for a significant increase in Marx's philosophical research, and it can be seen that Marx has initially germinated the germination of historical materialist jurisprudence.
To study Marx's legal thought requires studying the social and material conditions of Marx's time, so as to understand Marx's ideological context and understand why he turned to historical materialist jurisprudence after a great deal of theoretical and practical work. This important turning point is an important preparatory stage for Marxist jurisprudence, which shows the origin and development of Marx's early revolutionary democratic thought, and is an inescapable node for the study of Marxist theory.