The Pros And Cons Of Legal Beciousness

By analyzing legal consciousness through the lives of ordinary people, understanding social practices and norms that dictate how they enact new laws and challenge existing ones become much simpler. In the article by Anna-Maria Marshall called ‘In Their Own Words: How Ordinary People Construct the Legal World’, she elaborates on how researching legal consciousness and mobilization demonstrate the functions of law in everyday life and how the choices and values of individuals eventually lead to challenges and creations of new and existing laws. Legal consciousness is the understanding of how legality is experienced and understood by ordinary people as they engage, avoid, or resist the law. It is also defined as the practical knowledge individuals

Once individuals have the basic understanding of legal mobilization and consciousness, their choices and actions are restrained by the law. The meanings once made into law, become part of the materials and discursive systems that limit and constrain future meaning and making of the law. The inclusive customs and behavior people have towards the law due to legal phenomena give a vivid image of the aspect of legal consciousness and consequently, contributing to the reasons why many admire yet loathe the justice system at the same

The way the law is able to be a powerful external force is due to its long ritual of obedience to legal authority and the way it is able to organize society. This shows how legal consciousness and legal mobilization play a major role in the decisions of ordinary people when it comes to the forces of legality. The legitimacy of certain laws or norms depend on the values, beliefs and behavior of individuals. “The law on the books has less power than the perception of law by those who would invoke it or violate it” (Marshall Pg. 622) A great example of this is the way people follow the common laws like traffic lanes and parking rules or the reason why we respect other’s property because it is theirs. These habitual practices make it seem as though the presence of law is non-existent through our daily lives, explaining the reason why many concerns are disregarded with argument or notice. The daily social encounter of ordinary people are ultimately the factors that generate the law in everyday life. “Thus, law is what people think it is, what they say it is, and what they do to implement the meanings they create.” (Marshall Pg.