Law, morality, and freedom were interpreted by Marx and Engels as invariably an instrument of class dominance. They begin by laying out the history of oppression starting with the “freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf…oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.” Marx and Engels are simply saying that throughout history, the rich have had power over the poor. In democratic societies, many people believe themselves to be equal and free under the law. Marx and Engels argue that this is not the way the world works. There is always a class higher than another class, an oppressor and an oppressed. Equality and freedom under law is only easily accessible and enjoyed by people with power.

The bourgeoisie’s “very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of [their]… production and… property, just as [their] jurisprudence is but the will of [their] class made into a law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the [economic] conditions of existence of your class.” Marx contends that “law, morality, religion, are so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.” They continued to criticize the tradition of government under the rule of law as nothing more than a mere expression of bourgeois aspirations. Moreover, “the executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie,” meaning the government passes laws in favor of members of the bourgeoisie providing no representation for the proletariat.