The historical types of law are divided according to the economic basis of the existence of law and the nature of the will of the state. There are two main criteria to classify the historical types of law: first, the nature of the economic base on which the law exists; The second is the nature of the national will embodied by law.
All laws based on the same economic foundation and reflecting the overall will of the same type of social ruling group belong to the same historical type. According to this standard, there have been four historical types of laws in the history of legal development, namely, slavery law, feudal law, capitalist law and socialist law.
The movement of basic social contradictions is the fundamental reason for the replacement of legal historical types. Basic social contradictions, that is, the contradiction between production relations and productivity, superstructure and economic base, law is an integral part of social superstructure based on a certain economic base; On the other hand, the superstructure has a positive reaction to the economic base.
Therefore, the law of development is the embodiment of the law of social basic contradiction movement, which is the fundamental reason for the replacement of legal historical types. Judging from the way in which the historical type of law is replaced, it is realized in the process of social revolution that the historical type of new law replaces the historical type of old law.
Reasons for the replacement of legal historical types
The movement law of social basic contradiction is the fundamental reason for the replacement of historical law types. Basic social contradictions, namely, the contradiction between output elasticity and production relations, economic base and superstructure. The development of social productive forces leads to the development and change of production relations, which leads to the development and change of superstructure including law.
Law is an important part of superstructure. When the economic foundation and social relations it maintains are still compatible with the development of social productive forces, it is in a relatively stable state of development; When the economic base and social relations of production it maintains no longer adapt to the development of productive forces, the historical type of the old law will inevitably be replaced by the historical type of the new law.