Dr hab. Rafał Mańko

Central European University, Democracy Institute (Budapest, Hungary)

English abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine the position of Evgeny B. Pašukanis regarding the problem of autonomy of law. The source material for the research is his monograph entitled The General Theory of Law and Marxism (1924), in which he laid down the framework of his hylomorphic theory of law, also described as materialist or realist. The article begins with a reconstruction of the basic assumptions of Pašukanis’s hylomorphic theory of law and then moves on to the key issue of his views on the genesis of juridical form. In the light of the analysis, the article shows that the essence of law in J Pašukanis’s view is that it is a form that shapes and makes possible the relations of economic exchange that constitute its proper matter. Against this background, the article addresses the issue of the autonomy of law, indicating that it should be considered in two dimensions: the internal autonomy of law, i.e. the autonomy of juridical form in relation to its content, and the external autonomy of law, i.e. the autonomy of law in relation to the state, politics and ideology. When it comes to the internal autonomy of law, the paper points out that the relationship of the form of law to its matter is – in Pašukanis’s view – of a dialectical nature, which results in his rejection of Marx’s conception of law as a ‘superstructure’ reflecting economic relations in the ‘base.’  When it comes to the external autonomy of law, Pašukanis is firmly on the side of a hard ontology of law, based on its hylemorphic substance (the composite of the matter of acts of exchange and its legal form), which makes law primary vis-à-vis the state and politics and essentially distinct from ideology. This does not, of course, exclude the ideological nature of law, but – again contrary to Marxists – Pašukanis does not allow for the recognition of law as an essentially ideological phenomenon.

Keywords: autonomy of law, ideology, hylomorphism, juriscentrism, juridical form, legal form, Pašukanis

Language: Polish

Published: nr 4(41)/2024, pp. 91-103

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2024.4.91

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