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Jessop, Bob --- "Critical theory of the state" [2019] ELECD 1672; in Christodoulidis, Emilios; Dukes, Ruth; Goldoni, Marco (eds), "Research Handbook on Critical Legal Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 114

Book Title: Research Handbook on Critical Legal Theory

Editor(s): Christodoulidis, Emilios; Dukes, Ruth; Goldoni, Marco

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Critical theory of the state

Author(s): Jessop, Bob

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

Critical state theoretical perspectives on law address the differentiation and articulation of constitutional, private and public law with the state, civil society and capitalist market economy. Adopting a strategic-relational approach, this chapter focuses on five representative critical theorists: Karl Marx, Evgeny Pashukanis, Antonio Gramsci, Nicos Poulantzas and Michel Foucault. Key issues for all five included the historical specificity of the state and law in capitalist formations; the institutional boundaries of the state (including the division between the public and private spheres) and the capitalist market economy; the relation between the form and functions of the state and law in normal and crisis periods; the relation between legality and illegality in the exercise of state power; and the implications of historical and recent changes in capitalism and its contradictions, crisis tendencies and conflicts for the changing form and content of law and state power.