Theories of Max Weber and Karl Marx Applied to the Case of Viola Desmond

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“Truth is anything society deems it to be” is considerable right when our society believes that the only method of determining the “truth” is through laws and ideologies, which have been administered by the upper class Europeans. Our laws have been constructed to support the interest of the majority population, which supports their interest rather, then the general citizens. That being said, who created the legislation and administers laws, and who has the resources and inclination to challenge these laws? (Branch, 129). This question will be answered through the theories of Max Weber and Karl Marx who will be compared in regards to the construction of the legal knowledge, how law has become the truth in societies with the help of the 1960s case of Viola Desmond and two recent newspaper article These sources will prove that minority are still oppressed by the laws today.

The development of the legal system has been constructed to support the interest of the majority population while oppressing the minority groups. Having a particular status or class, has allowed the privileged to benefit from theses laws. Perfect examples of this, are celebrities who have been charged with criminal offences and have received the minimum sentences, such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Being a society that is influenced by the upper class many people believe that, what the majority class views as right or wrong, is the truth. However, society fails to acknowledge that, laws have been constructed in a particular way, which allows legal officials to manipulate or interpreted the law in ways that will benefit the high-class defendants. Manipulation of the law is demonstrated through the works of Marx who believes that, law differs from how it ap...

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...are able to explain the factors and circumstance of these inequality occurrence. As Weber states that the English lawyers were oriented to commercial life in their training and this facilitated a reshaping of laws favorable to business interest. These classes have the resources to challenge the laws and erase the “deviant” label. Minority societies don’t have these resources. Regardless, if the minority gains social mobility, Marx argues that, the legal structure has been tied with the increasing division of labor and specialized work in complex societies. This maintains the inherent divisions of societies are based on social inequality. (Couto, 2009) These social divisions give rise to different and competing interest. As long as they’re competing interests amongst each social division, inequity and discrimination within the legal system, will also be prevalent.

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