A Study On The Relative Independence Of Law: A Marxism Legal Perspective

The theory of relative independence of law is an important content of the lawitself, it is concerned with many problems of exploring the nature of law and takinglaw as the core, as well as the important basis for construction of rule of law, which isconsisted with the core element of ruling by law.A new generation of collective leadership, with Xi Jinping as the core, speciallyemphasizes on the construction of rule of law in a new era. On October23th,2014,the Chinese Communist Party’s Fourth Plenary Session of the18thSession of theCentral Committee deliberated and adopted “The Decision of Several SignificantProblems in Promoting the rule of law by the Central Committee of the ChineseCommunist Party”. The adoption of the decision is a milestone, which marks that therule of law has become a new requirement for the construction of our country underthe rule of law, and also means that the thoughts of ruling of law will be fullypermeated into the legislation, law enforcement, judicial process and law abiding etc.Comprehensive promotion of the rule of law always requires us to get a clearunderstanding of the legal nature, and undoubtedly, the research of relativeindependence of law will reveal to the essence of law and provides an importanttheoretical basis.In this paper, I firstly clarified the concept of “relative independence of law”, andexpounded the emergence and development of its history, and pointed out that thetheory of “relative independence of law” was coming from Engels’ criticism to the“economic determinism of law”, and finally was inherited and developed by theWestern Marxism jurists. Secondly, this paper analyzed the independence of lawrelative to the economic basis and the independence of law with respect to the ruler,and discovered the two basic connotations of the relative independence of law. Thirdly,this paper also analyzed the relative autonomy of nations and legal reasoning, andrevealed the fact that the relative autonomy of nation and legal reasoning is the root ofthe relative independence of the law. Finally, on the basis of fully expounded principleof the relative independence of law, the paper made a combination between the theory of relative independence of law and our country’s basic policy of constructing asociety of ruling by law.Based on the discussion of the relative independence of law theory, this paperinsists that: Legal theory of relative independence of law requires us not to simplytake law as a ruling tool of society during the Socialist legal construction, but torespect its inherent logic and regulation, and stick to the legal principle of relativeindependence in legislation, law enforcement, judicial process and law abiding, andfinally draw the grand blueprint of “China’s rule of law”.