Legal Consciousness: A Systematic Review of its Conceptualization and Measurement Methods1

Abstract

This article reports on a conducted systematic review focused on conceptualization and measurement methods of legal consciousness, which can be understood as the equivalent for the legitimacy of law. A systematic search identified 2,054 articles, resulting in the inclusion of 156 relevant articles after two phases of the screening process. Articles analyzed lacked a clear conceptualization of a legal consciousness construct and validated methods of its measurement with satisfactory quality. A considerable room for improvement was found for both conceptualization and measurement methods of legal consciousness. This review identifies six separate components of legal consciousness (general knowledge, skills, specific knowledge, attitudes, trust, and identity) and offers a unifying and comprehensive definition of legal consciousness based on those components. Using descriptive characteristics and inference statistics, main methodological weaknesses of selected articles were discussed and a set of criteria for optimal measurement method of legal consciousness was introduced.