Legal consciousness

[3] The study of legal consciousness documents the forms of participation and interpretation through which act or sustain, reproduce, or amend the circulating contested or hegemonic structures of meanings concerning law.

The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia (1979) defined legal consciousness as " the sum of views and ideas expressing the attitude of people toward law, legality, and justice and their concept of what is lawful and unlawful.

They explain that there are cultural schemas provided by law that people use to make sense of their experiences.

This process of understanding legal experiences occurs within a larger ecosystem in which there are disputes over meaning and values.

Seron and Munger explain that ""in addition, class may affect legal consciousness: Law may mean different things depending on an individual's location in the various hierarchies of status, prestige, and knowledge associated with membership in a social class.