About Legal Culture: Main Theories and Their Consequences

Abstract

The terminology of legal culture has been widely used in both common language and jurisprudence over the last few decades without its actual meaning being defined. Almost everyone agrees that the concept of legal culture is undefined and vague. Giving a brief and concise definition is not possible in jurisprudence, as the term refers to several concepts. This study tries to present the essence of some basic theories in connection with legal culture and argues that adopting an approach on the basis of legal culture creates more advantages than disadvantages in jurisprudence. It tries to summarise and review the key findings of the published literature on this topic. Consequently, this article aims to provide a theoretical overview. It is useful to periodically evaluate the progress that academic discourse has made in clarifying the meaning of a contested concept. The paper begins by clarifying the concept of culture, the complex meaning of which gives rise to the even more complex concept of legal culture. The starting point is actually Lawrence M. Friedman, who first introduced the modern concept of legal culture in a book in 1975. A brief summary of Friedman’s ideas is provided, alongside a systematic critique by Roger Cotterrell, who developed his own conceptual approach, too. This is followed by a section on the widespread use of the concept of legal culture. Although the term is popular, users always define it slightly differently and attribute their own meaning to it. However, the common thread is that the use of this concept emphasises the study of law as a social phenomenon. From a philosophical point of view, it is possible to recognise that cultural relativism and culturalism can lead to theoretical and methodological problems. However, the conclusion is that the careful and well-founded use of this concept in research has more advantages than disadvantages. This finding is reinforced by an illustration of its application in the fields of legal sociology and comparative legal studies. The conclusion of the majority of the reviewed literature is that when applied correctly, legal culture is an effective tool for analysing law. It is a valuable resource for legal studies, the sociology of law, comparative law and legal history. As the examples demonstrate, legal culture can also provide a foundation for empirical research. At an analytical level, legal culture can be used to break down the complex social phenomenon of law into elements that can be effectively examined, either theoretically or empirically, through appropriate conceptualisation and operationalisation.