Marxism in EU legal scholarship

After providing an introductory overview of selected aspects of the thought of Karl Marx and of the main interpretative currents on Western Marxism, this chapter argues that Marx's legacy in contemporary scholarship on European Union (EU) law is found in methodology. This is because the use of holistic, teleological and/or historical materialist explanations, which are now widespread in EU legal scholarship, could be considered a Marxist legacy, even though the authors may not explicitly reference Marx or Marxism. Marxist insights contributed to the move of EU law scholarship in English away from a purely doctrinal method to a contextual approach, and scholars borrowing from Marxism may still ask interesting normative questions. However, this chapter, which provides a perspective on 'analytical Marxism', contends that there is currently little remaining of Marxist contribution which is to be learnt for EU legal scholars. Where Marx is still enlightening is in the identification of 'big picture' normative questions.