Legal Culture of Society in the Context of European Integration

Abstract

In the context of national and cultural revival of Ukraine, orientation towards building a democratic, rule-of-law state and democratic society, which is returning to the family of European nations, the problem of legal culture is of great importance. The purpose of the article is to contextualize and streamline the ideas about the phenomenon of legal culture. Legal culture is a relatively new term, introduced into scientific circulation in the last third of the twentieth century. This does not mean that the issues and processes it is used to explain have emerged recently. On the contrary, legal culture as a legal phenomenon has existed since the emergence of law and the state, acquiring a new sound every time when transjurisdictional law collides with the law of certain entities (ethnic groups, kingdoms, nation-states), causing the formation of a pre-legal order, then - legal order and finally - the legal system. Structural elements of legal culture (institutional and intellectual) are not historical constants, but change over time. Thus, legal culture is to some extent both static and dynamic. Legal culture is formed under the influence of various historical events and processes in society, region and the world. Together they form the basis of legal culture, which gives it a static character. But since the functioning of society and the state, their interaction with other states constantly creates new experience, legal culture is constantly undergoing certain (significant or insignificant) changes (covering legal culture as a whole or its individual elements), which gives it a dynamic character. The development of legal culture is influenced by the relationship between languages and legal systems, especially in the process of legal integration, as well as the problems that arise when trying to translate legal documents from one language into another. The value of the concept of "legal culture" lies in the fact that it helps to better understand law in action, its embodiment in institutional and similar practices, because ideas and expectations about law and the legal institutions that ensure its functioning are often questioned and may change in the process of encountering other, competing ideas, expectations and practices related to law.The legal-cultural approach helps us to understand how national legal cultures respond to current changes and, by comparing past and present processes, to identify those factors and mechanisms that trigger or restrain changes in the legal sphere.