Alternative Futures of Right in Pashukanis, Kojève, and Bloch

Igor Shoikhedbrod (Dalhousie University)

Alternative Futures of Right in Pashukanis, Kojève, and Bloch

With the recent publication of Christoph Menke’s Critique of Rights, Katharina Pistor's The Code of Capital, and Sonja Buckel's Subjectivation and Cohesion, there has been a flowering of interest among critical theorists in law and right. Unfortunately, far less attention has been given to the imaginative contributions of avowed Marxist theorists of law such as Evgeny Pashukanis, Ernst Bloch, and Alexandre Kojève. In this talk, I examine the alternative 'futures' of right that were elaborated in the pioneering works of Pashukanis (The General Theory of Law and Marxism and “The Situation on the Legal Theory Front”), Bloch (Natural Law and Human Dignity), and Kojève (Outline of a Phenomenology of Right), and show their continued relevance for critical theoretical scholarship on law. Each of these thinkers engaged in a critical analysis of law and theorized the nature, function, and future of law under emancipatory social conditions. It is high time that we revisit the contributions of these largely neglected thinkers.

Speaker's bio

Igor Shoikhedbrod is an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in Political Science and Law, Justice, and Society at Dalhousie University. He is also the author of Revisiting Marx’s Critique of Liberalism: Rethinking Justice, Legality and Rights (2019) with Palgrave Macmillan, as well as several academic articles focused on legal and political theory.