Marxism is primarily a social, political, and economic theory that interprets history through

an evolutionary prism. Marx claimed to have discovered a progressive pattern controlling

human evolution, which would lead humanity to the advent of a communist society of
classless individuals. On this basis Marx defined the state and all its laws as mere instruments
of class oppression, which would have to disappear when the final stage of human evolution
were finally accomplished.

This article discusses Marxist legal theory and how it has been applied in communist
countries that have claimed Marxism as their official ideology. It investigates whether the
undercurrent of violence and lawlessness constantly exhibited by the actual behaviour of
Marxist regimes may in fact be a natural consequence of Marxist theory itself. Indeed, Marx
viewed laws basically in terms of guaranteeing and justifying class oppression, thus
advancing the position that laws in a socialist state must be nothing more than the imposition
(by a political elite) of the dictatorship of the proletariat.