Social Consciousness

The Primary Forms of Social Consciousness

Legal Consciousness

As previously noted, in primitive, pre-class societies, the necessity of reconciling individual and societal interests gave rise to morality, which served as a regulator of human behavior. Its unauthorized normativity and the obligatory adherence to established social forms and behavioral norms initially arose from the force of custom (act thus because it has always been so, it was customary) and, gradually, as social development progressed, from the force of tradition. The division of society into classes and the formation of qualitatively distinct social existence rendered the functioning of universal behavioral norms impossible. "The ruling classes in the economy, and hence in the political superstructure," notes S. Krapivensky, "endeavor to regulate the behavior of all members of society to maintain their dominance, ensuring that the social relations they protect possess order and stability. The state endows these rules (norms) with a mandatory character, sanctioning their obligatory nature by all means at its disposal. Thus, law emerges as a system of social norms and relations protected by the force of the state."

Historical sources attest to a connection between morality and law. The formation of legal norms often occurs through the sanctioning of established customs and traditions as laws. Furthermore, this pathway has not been exhausted in subsequent developments and continues to serve reliably in legislation, as K. Marx emphasized: "If a form (of social activity) has existed for a certain period, it becomes entrenched as custom and tradition and, ultimately, is sanctioned as positive law."

The emergence of law marks the beginning of the establishment of a legal existence—a collection of relations among social subjects based on the obligation to adhere to legal norms, behavioral standards sanctioned as laws, which are protected by the state.

Legal consciousness manifests as one of the fundamental, integrating forms of social consciousness, reflecting a synthesis of views and ideas that express the attitudes of individuals, social groups, and classes toward law, legality, and justice, along with their conceptions of what is deemed lawful or unlawful.

It is crucial to note the complex nature of the relationship between legal consciousness and law. While legal consciousness expresses the attitudes and views of the ruling classes in society, it precedes the law itself. Conversely, the established legal system within a given society acts as a significant factor influencing legal consciousness, which in turn affects the functioning of law, its application, and compliance.

Characterized by all the general features inherent to social consciousness as a whole and already discussed regarding its primary forms, legal consciousness simultaneously possesses its own specificity and is distinguished by several peculiarities.

The first such peculiarity lies in the fact that legal consciousness serves as a specific reflection of the economic, political, and other relations of a given society, as well as the positions of classes and individuals within the system of social production and its socio-political structure.

The second peculiarity of legal consciousness is that its content, while largely dependent on legal relations, fundamentally derives from economic relations, which in turn determine both legal relations and legal norms as well as legal consciousness itself.

The third peculiarity of legal consciousness is that it provides the idea of law, facilitating the application of the law through the interpretation of its meaning and the determination of punishment.

The fourth peculiarity of legal consciousness is its dynamism; it more swiftly identifies contradictions between changing life conditions and existing legislation than other forms of social consciousness, thereby contributing to the improvement of the latter.

Within the system of categories and concepts established in legal consciousness, the role of integrator is played by justice, which reflects the notion of duty, corresponding to specific conceptions of the inalienable rights of individuals as formulated in that society at a certain stage of its historical development.

Occasionally, authors of textbooks and educational resources on philosophy and social philosophy, while exploring the theme of legal consciousness, tend to avoid addressing its structure. Nevertheless, legal consciousness, like other forms of social consciousness, is a complex, multi-layered formation.

Its primary levels include everyday legal consciousness, theoretical legal consciousness, legal psychology, and legal ideology.

Everyday legal consciousness represents the elemental form of legal consciousness, which, being inherent to practically every individual, manifests itself in vague, emotionally charged notions about law and the system of laws operating within a particular society, acquired through the direct influence of specific legal acts, media, etc. Its expressions include dogmas, postulates, proverbs, and sayings (The law of obligations applies to all. Law and justice are two things that God has united, but man has divided. The law is like a dowsing rod. The law is a majestic statue before which hats are doffed but which people walk past. The most effective laws are unwritten. Do not judge, lest you be judged), anecdotes.

Alongside everyday legal consciousness lies legal psychology, which encompasses "a set of feelings, skills, habits, and phenomena that enable an individual to navigate legal norms and regulate their relations with other individuals, the state, and society as a whole."

A higher level of legal consciousness is theoretical legal consciousness, or legal theory, which investigates the laws governing the development of the legal sphere and their specific manifestations, that is, the underlying patterns.

On the same level as theoretical legal consciousness is legal ideology—a collection of theoretically substantiated legal ideas, norms, and viewpoints perceived as correct and necessary by the citizens of a given society, comprising its social groups and strata, which they follow in their activities and conduct.

The current stage of development in Ukrainian society is characterized by a plurality of legal ideologies, their fragility, variability, and the uncertainty of their developmental vector, which indicates the crisis phenomena experienced in the development of law and which serve as a factor restraining the optimization of social development and societal progress.