The only way of finding out if Hunt's claims are accurate is to embark on a different kind of intellectual inquiry than the one in which he is engaged. My point though, is that the kind of theory he seeks to advance requires a vastly more intense involvement with the results of empirical investigation than this book evinces. Hunt's concept of theory is suspended between traditional philosophy and modern social science. There are also problems with the substance of Hunt's theoretical perspective. Here I turn from his general style of theorizing to the specific content of his work.
Hunt writes from within a Marxist frame of reference.
Now the Marxist theory of law walks a tightrope. What distinguishes Marxism from other viewpoints is the view that law is an instrument of the ruling class. To account for these facts, other factors must be invoked. But to introduce additional considerations is to risk contaminating the model and forfeiting the distinctiveness of the theory. This is the dilemma that Hunt wrestles with in the early chapters and the one the concept of ideology is intended to overcome.