SHS Web of Conferences 55, 02009 (2018) https://doi.org/10.

1051/shsconf/20185502009
ICPSE 2018

Conceptualizing legal culture and legal

awareness: meaning and structural components
Madina Kozhukhova1,*, and Miras Zhiyenbayev1
1Karaganda State Technical University, 100027, 56 Mira ave., Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

Abstract. The paper discusses the meaning and structural components of

such concepts as legal culture and legal awareness. The authors review
main approaches to defining these two concepts, outline their
characteristics and distinctive features. It is emphasized that the
phenomena have specific features in transit societies, in which the sense of
justice is of particular importance since it, in many respects, ensures the
legal order and evolutionary character of social transformations. In
addition, the paper focuses on the interrelation of legal culture and legal
awareness.

1 Introduction
Legal culture is a special layer of culture that can be associated with the society as a whole,
political and legal state bodies, officials, social groups, ordinary citizens, etc. It is believed
that the legal culture is closely connected with legal awareness and even relies on it. Some
also believe that the concept of legal culture is broader than the concept of legal awareness,
because the first one includes not only certain ideological and psychological elements, but
also the legally meaningful behavior of citizens.
The paper critically reviews the existing concepts of legal culture and legal awareness,
emphasizing their fundamental roles in the transition societies, focusing on Kazakhstan and
other post-Soviet countries.

2 Understanding the concept of legal culture: main approaches

Several constituent parts can be distinguished in the legal culture, namely material,
information, and subjective ones [1, 2, 3]. The material part of the legal culture forms the
basis for the functioning of other parts of culture in the form of state and legal
organizations, institutions, finance, technological support of social and legal relations, and
so on. The information part of the legal culture includes the accumulation of aggregate legal
information in the historical, factual, and logical aspects. In addition, it provides
accumulation, storage, processing, and translation of legal information in the society, which
in general creates an information basis for legal relations. The subjective part of the legal
culture is its anthropological component, organically connected with the legal

*
Corresponding author: k_madina78@mail.ru

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
SHS Web of Conferences 55, 02009 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185502009
ICPSE 2018

consciousness of the subjects [4, 6, 7, 8]. It provides the opportunity and the need for a
person, a group of people, and a population of a particular society to master the foundations
and norms of legal culture, as well as legal behavior in society. More than that, the
subjective part of the legal culture is fixed in the sense of justice and is realized on the basis
of the latter in many acts of people. The most holistic, by definition, should be the legal
awareness of professionals who have a professional legal education. These are the
specialists, legal theorists and practicing lawyers, who are obliged to master the norms of
legal culture in the most profound way, have the highest level of legal awareness, and are
able to implement this in competent law enforcement.
To present the full essence of the legal culture that is being formed in the process of
legal education, it is necessary to distinguish its logical structure. In this plane, the legal
culture represents legal concepts and categories, evaluations (evaluative judgments), and
deontological legal modalities. Legal concepts and categories constitute the rational side of
the legal culture of the individual and express the degree of knowledge and understanding
of legal phenomena that she/he has achieved. Legal concepts can serve as the basis for the
formation of the evaluation aspect of the legal culture of the individual. Normative
judgments are formed in legal education on the basis of legal knowledge, assessments and
promote self-regulation of the individuals’ legal behavior of the individual. It is associated
with the development of the critical function of consciousness, therefore it is an integral
part of a specialist’s legal awareness. Critical professional approach to the legal phenomena
of society not only allows us to understand the role of legal culture as a factor ensuring the
maintenance of progressive legal norms, but also contributes to the abolition of obsolete
regulators, the formation of new legal social levers for the improvement of society,
corresponding to a high technical, legal, ideological, and theoretical level.
The question of the structure of legal culture in modern philosophical and legal
literature is debatable. For instance, Salnikov believes that the structural elements of legal
culture are the components of legal activity in their particular perspective of the standards
of behavior: law, legal conscience, legal relations, law and order, lawful activity of
subjects. As for its content, it includes not just legal awareness, legality, etc., but also the
character, level, degree of their development, that is, what gives them this stage of
civilization and social progress [6].
The structure of the subject part of the legal culture can be divided into the following
main elements: (a) psychological (legal psychology in vocational education); (b)
ideological (legal ideology in education); and (c) behavioral (legally significant behavior as
an applied result of education).
However, we note that, according to Semitko, the separation of structural elements of
legal culture is rather arbitrary, since there is no legal activity carried out separately from
the legal awareness, legal awareness can appear only in legal activity and its results, that is,
in legal acts [7].
Karipbaev believes that the elements (subsystems) of legal culture are the level states,
i.e. the "degree of legal development" of such components of the legal system of society as:
(a) legal texts (documents and texts having legal content); (b) legal activities (theoretical
and practical); (c) legal awareness (including cognitive, emotional, and installation
components); (d) the subject as the bearer of legal culture (society, classes, nations,
nationalities, collectives, and individuals) [8].
Other authors include cultural complexes in the legal culture: lawmaking, legal science,
law, legal relations, criteria for political evaluation of law and legal behavior, legal
awareness, and legal institutions. In terms of importance, some researchers suggest a
number of levels in the structure of legal culture: (a) the first level is related to legal needs,
subconscious structures of legal culture (attitudes, interests, inclinations, desires, feelings,
etc.); (b) the second level means the availability of legal knowledge and the ability to use

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them; (c) the third level implies the “formalized” attitude to the law; and (d) the fourth level
is behavior and activity in situations that have legal content.
The degree of organic nature of the proposed structure undoubtedly affects the quality
of legal knowledge and the ability to use them, on the nature of the attitude to the law
(respect for it, the sense of legality), as well on the willingness to comply with legal norms
and to promote the strengthening of law and order. It should be noted that in professional
legal education all the aforementioned levels should be presented as they are mastered and
complicated in mastering the specialty. The legal culture functions in interaction with other
areas or spheres of culture: political, moral (ethical), aesthetic, religious, etc. Moreover, in
the specific content of the legal culture, features and peculiarities that are characteristic of
both the prevailing culture of a given society and its individual areas are necessarily
manifested.
Depending on the bearer of legal culture, one can distinguish the legal culture of society
and the legal culture of the individual. Here the common is expressed in the aggregate of
individual consciousness and cultures of people, which are purposefully formed in the
process of legal education. The organizing core in this case is a philosophical, legal, and
professional legal education.
The essence of the legal culture of the individual can be expressed by the following
formula: know - respect - follow. The authors have in mind the requirements of the laws.
As in the case with legal awareness, this is the primary, ordinary level of legal culture,
which, however, acquires a social significance. Legal culture of the individual should be
considered separately from the legal culture of individual social groups and society as a
whole (which is reflected in the relevant vocational education disciplines). The legal culture
of a group is characterized by the level of legal awareness of this social group, as well as
the level of compliance with law. A group feels the influence of the value orientations that
prevail in society and the influence of individual personalities who give this or that
character to these orientations.
The legal culture of society is an integral part of the values that it created. It includes
such “indicators” as the achieved level of legal consciousness, full-fledged legislation, a
developed legal system, effective independent justice, a wide range of rights and freedoms
of a citizen and their guarantees, the state of law and order, strong legal traditions, the legal
literacy of the population, the clear work of law enforcement agencies, respect for laws, and
much more, which all together determine the legal life and legal development of the state.

3 The concept of legal awareness: key characteristics

Recognizing the law as objective social reality, we must recognize the existence of a
subjective reaction of people to law, i.e. the legal awareness of citizens. Legal awareness is
the inevitable companion of law [8, 9]. This is due to the fact that law is the regulator of
relations between people endowed with will and consciousness. It is quite obvious that the
process of creating law (law-making) is connected with the conscious activity of people,
and the law itself is the product of this activity. It is also clear that the process of the
implementation of law is usually a conscious, volitional activity of people. Therefore, such
phenomena as law, legal culture, legal consciousness, professional legal education, general
legal education and education, legal behavior of the population, and its individual citizens
(professional lawyers and non-professionals) are inherently connected. The legal awareness
is a combination of ideas and feelings that express the attitude of people towards law and
legal phenomena in public life. It usually does not exist in a “pure” form, it is
interconnected with other types and forms of awareness of reality. So, often, legal
awareness is intertwined with moral views. People assess the law and legal phenomena

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from the standpoint of moral categories of good and evil, justice and injustice, conscience,
honor, etc. Attitude to law is also often determined by political views.
The influence of legal awareness, and with it of legal education, on the organization of
public life is quite large. The most visible role is played by legal awareness in the process
of the implementation of legal rights and obligations. Human life clearly demonstrates that
consciousness, thought, image, and volitional efforts really control the behavior of people,
initiate and regulate their actions and actions in all spheres of life, including legal.
The level, quality, character, content of professional legal education, as well as general
legal education and citizens’ education determine what will be legal awareness and the
behavior of people in society. Whether it will be lawful, socially useful, unlawful, or
socially harmful and dangerous.
The concept of legal awareness (both individual and collective) is a complex structural
formation, in which it is possible to identify rational components usually being called a
legal ideology. Within this concept, one can also distinguish the emotional and sensual
structural elements that are embraced by legal psychology. Therefore, legal education
includes knowledge of legal awareness as a complex structured phenomenon. Any trainee
should receive not only theoretical knowledge, but also necessary skills in order to be able
to apply this knowledge in practice.
In real life, legal awareness manifests itself as a whole, unstructured. The isolation of
structural elements in legal awareness contributes only to an understanding of its role and
place in the life of an individual and society as a whole. As you know, legal awareness can
be divided into three levels. The first level is everyday legal awareness. It is typical for a
wide strata of the population of a particular society. The general legal culture, social
calmness, the way of creating social life largely depends on his condition. The second level
is the professional legal awareness, which is formed in the process of legal education and
practice. The subjects of this level have specialized, detailed knowledge of the current
legislation and skills of its application. The formation of a professional legal awareness
should be given special attention in modern conditions. The third level is scientific,
theoretical legal awareness. It is characteristic for researchers engaged in issues of legal
culture, the philosophy of law, rulemaking, and conceptual foundations of the legal
regulation of social relations. Humanitarian researchers are working here.
With respect to subjects, legal awareness can be divided into individual and collective.
Group legal awareness is one of the types of collective legal awareness, which should be
distinguished from the mass one (typical for unstable, temporary associations of people).
To characterize macro-collectives (population of the country, continent, historical era), one
uses the notion of “public sense of justice.” The legal views of nations and nationalities can
also be assigned to this category. To characterize a macro group of people (population of
the country, continent, historical era), one uses the notion of “public legal awareness.”
Certain legal views of nations and nationalities can also be assigned to this category.

4 Legal awareness and legal culture

An analysis of the attitude of people to laws and other normative legal acts makes it
possible to identify other elements in legal awareness that determine its relationship with
the legal culture.
The first element is informational. It is the presence in the mind of certain information
about the law. Information can be complete and comprehensive (for example, after working
with a text on law, acquaintance with the process of its adoption, reading comments on this
law) and may be superficial, with someone else's words. The information level of legal
awareness is its obligatory structural part, there can be no relation to the law without proper
information about it.

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The second element is evaluative. Having received information about a normative act, a
person somehow relates to it, assesses it, compares it with its own values. Axiological
(value) elements of legal awareness occupy an important place in its structure. Based on the
value representations of a person, the motives for his/her behavior in the legal sphere are
being formed. Awareness of the value of the right by a person facilitates the transformation
of the right from being “alien”, emanating from external forces, from power social
structures, into becoming “one's own” and contributing to the realization of the goals and
interests of peoples.
On the basis of information and evaluation elements, the third element is formed, which
is volitional one. After learning about the law and assessing it, a person decides what he/she
will do in the conditions prescribed by law. Whether to use the law to benefit yourself or
just “bypass” it, to strictly follow this law or find other legal acts more in line with interests
and needs. All these moments are part of the volitional element of legal awareness. The
volitional focus of legal awareness is sometimes referred to as a legal setting, i.e. a
psychological direction and willingness of a person to somehow act in the sphere of legal
regulation.

5 Conclusion
The legal culture underlying legal awareness, in a broad sense, can be regarded as a reality
in all the diversity of its material and spiritual manifestations. The legal culture of a society
is a part of the social culture that has been formed in this society at a certain stage of its
development. It characterizes the qualitative state of the legal life of society [9].
Analysis of the legal culture and its formation in legal education is necessary in order to,
first of all, identify and describe the legal values, ideals, and patterns that are mastered by a
professional lawyer and to which legislators, law enforcement officials, citizen, and society
as a whole should strive. Only then a specialist, evaluating from this point of view the real
state of affairs, is able to look for ways and means to achieve the ideals in the construction
of the rule of law and society, where not only the human rights and freedoms that are
relevant to its socio-economic and spiritual order are ensured, but there is also an adequate
level of responsibility of individuals for their actions within the framework of the
constitution and legal culture.
Legal culture is inconceivable without a person and his activity, determined by the
worldview, without the progressive orientation of this activity and this thinking. It acts as a
social phenomenon with a clearly defined target orientation. The legal culture of the society
is the guarantor of the legal protection and civic activity of the individual, "forces" the
power to give legal status to a person of legal significance.
It acts as a social phenomenon with a clearly defined target orientation. The legal
culture of the society is the guarantor of the legal protection and civic activity of the
individual, "forces" the government to give legal significance to a legal status to a person.
Undoubtedly, this subjective part of the legal culture is purposefully formed in the process
of professional legal education of professional lawyers, which make up the content core of
this part of the legal culture. But, in addition, broad legal education of the population is also
necessary. It should be initiated by specialists in the field of general humanities
(philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, and educators) as well as professional
lawyers.
Legal culture is mastered in the process of a person's life, becoming fixed in his/her
legal awareness. Therefore, it should be developed in the process of legal education of the
population: in the family, labor and other collectives of people, through public media, in the
process of joint legal actions of citizens, etc.

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