Taiwo emphasizes that these formations are dialectical or dynamic, not merely static, so that the law which is naturally appropriate to a capitalist economy will embody tensions and contradictions that replicate the underlying conflicts of that economy. In addition, he discusses the enactment and reform of "positive law"—law established by government institutions—in a Marxian framework.
Olufemi Taiwo is Professor of Africana Studies at Cornell University. He is the author of How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa and Africa Must Be Modern: A Manifesto.