Prof Michael Wilkinson

This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law and LLB in Laws. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This course examines the state and law from the perspective of critical theory. The nature of critique varies, but central to critical theories are issues of power, and specifically, inequalities of power and how they shape society. Also central are issues of law’s relationship to social and political change. Critical theory diagnoses modern society and offers evaluation of the causes of things, but it also offers various remedies, both reformist and revolutionary in nature. It is therefore explanatory and normative in dual perspective. 

The course will tackle classical critical theory rooted in the work of Karl Marx, 20th century critical theory associated with the ‘Frankfurt school’, and more contemporary strands of critical theory, such as Black Marxism, Critical Legal Studies, and Law and Political Economy. We will also look at theories of the relationship between law and politics and law and democracy, and current challenges to law and the state coming from environmental movements and global concerns. 

Topics include:

Introduction to Critical Theory

Enlightenment and Critical Theory

Classical Marxism 

Contemporary Marxism

Frankfurt School Critical Theory

Critical Legal Studies

Law and Politics

Law and Democracy 

Law and Political Economy

Environmentalism

Populism

Eurocentrism

20 hours of seminars in the WT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

1,500 word essay.

There is not one single text. We will be looking at specific texts for each topic (some of which are currently part of the Jurisprudence syllabus (which I can provide on request). An introductory text to critical theory is Raymond Geuss, The Idea of a Critical Theory (CUP 1981). We will be looking at excerpts from some of the following texts: Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (Penguin, 2002), Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Penguin 1958), Jurgen Habermas, Towards a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy (MIT, 1992), Nancy Fraser, ‘Behind Marx’s Hidden Abode’ (New Left Review, 2014), Samir Amin, Eurocentrism (Monthly Review Press, 2010).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes) in the spring exam period.