The Concept, Essence and Digital Reality of Ordinary Legal Consciousness

Abstract

The process of formation and development of legal consciousness is one of the main elements of the development of public consciousness in general, it helps to reach new levels of collective evolution. The development of public consciousness went through many stages, it can be defined as follows: from mythological, and then traditional consciousness to logical and legal consciousness. The category of legal consciousness, widely used in legal discourse, acts primarily as a characteristic of the sociolegal way of being a person. Legal consciousness, considered as a process, implicitly contains an initially defined meaning of law, encoded in the goal-setting and ideological position of the subject as a legal creature. In modern domestic jurisprudence, issues related to the understanding of legal consciousness, its essence and structure, have been developed to a certain extent. However, this does not mean that there is no space for their further study, taking into account the new methodology and changing social realities. In their works, various authors express positions that legal consciousness should be considered as a complex, in relations of interaction with law: one depends on the other equally. At the same time, it should be noted that legal consciousness is also influenced by non-legal factors that have a huge impact on the formation of legal consciousness, namely: ideological, cultural, religious, historical, material and economic, historical factors. Combining, all of the above factors form the levels of development of ordinary legal consciousness, both personal and public. The choice of legal means and, as a result, the effectiveness of the types of legal activities of the individual and society as a whole depends on the level of development of ordinary legal consciousness. In this article, the Author analyzes one of the levels of legal consciousness, namely ordinary legal consciousness. Special attention is paid by the Author to the views of legal scholars regarding the “concept” and “essence” of ordinary legal consciousness. The construction of legal consciousness, its specificity, characteristic features, as well as factors influencing its development and formation are considered. In his work, the Author reveals the features of ordinary legal consciousness, and also comes to the conclusion that ordinary legal consciousness is a phenomenon based on the subjective reflection of an objectively existing and developing reality by an individual.