JUSTICE IN MARXS THEORIES

Marx radicalizes the dissolution of the term of justice which began in theories of enlightenment by breaking the tradition oriented towards the law and the state. On the basis of theoretical and political texts the article however shows that Marx remains trapped within the discou rse on justice mainly because he establishes a fundamental relation be tween theory and labour movement. There are two implicit terms of just ice in Marx's work. While the relative one refers to civil society, th e absolute one is linked to communism. Only partially in his late writ ings, Marx considered the tension between these two terms as a methodi cal problem. Thus he discusses the preconditions of social justice wit hout conceptualizing them. The decoupling of the term ''social'' from being an essential attribute of a post-revolutionary societal order wa s the precondition for the career of the concept of social justice in the 20th century.