Legal culture as a factor in the eff ectiveness of legislative activity

Abstract

Introduction. Today’s changes in economic relations, political and social spheres of Ukrainian society require radical changes in the legal superstructure, in particular, a signifi cant update of legislation and ensuring the humanistic direction of its implementation. The aim of the article. To fi nd out the current state and problems of development of legal culture as a factor in the eff ectiveness of legislative activity, taking into account certain aspects of it to highlight them in this article. Results. The law is able to nurture legal ideas, promote the emergence of new, more progressive approaches to solving problems of legal regulation; by-laws are adopted on the basis of the law, legal institutions are formed, which testify to the level of legal culture; with the help of laws and bylaws based on them, a system of actions and attitudes that meet the minimum standards of culture is approved; the law creates or consolidates those institutions (bodies) that are able to form a legal culture. It is argued that laws must be truly just, legitimate, express the true interests and will of the people, society, and be perceived by citizens as «their own» and not «foreign», imposed from above as abstract prescriptions. It is then that laws and other regulations will be enforced «not out of fear but out of conscience», to inspire trust, respect and the need to follow them. Thus, the law becomes formal, ineff ective, so the individual does not recognize its value, and therefore ignores it. It is established that the need for steady growth and achieving a high level of legal culture of every citizen, every offi cial, every civil servant and, especially, professional lawyers, who have the main work on lawmaking and law enforcement. In the professional legal culture a special place belongs to the legal culture of lawmakers, because the level of their professional training, legal culture depends on the quality ofaws, timely and correct amendments to existing legislation in order to improve it. Conclusions. It is the development of legal science and culture of members of society that should create a mechanism for implementing state and legal reform, which would provide Ukraine with the rule of law necessary for normal life, then it would be leading and obvious what and how to change to improve it, not constant destruction. Key words: legislation, effi ciency, legislative activity, regulation of public relations, legal culture.