Legal awareness, sometimes called public legal education or legal literacy, is the empowerment of individuals regarding issues involving the law.What is legal literacy? Examining the concept and objectives of legal literacy (Accessed on 31 Mar 2013) Legal awareness helps to promote consciousness of legal culture, participation in the formation of laws and the rule of law.Ashok Swain, Ramses Amer Globalization and Challenges to Building Peace (Accessed on 1 April 2013)Bharadwaj Study Package For CLAT Page vii "Legal Awareness is the most important component for the students preparing for LL.B. entrance tests. It is altogether a new subject for the students preparing for the said examinations. In the absence of any comprehensive book on this topic in.."
Public legal education, sometimes called civics education, comprises a range of activities intended to build public awareness and skills related to law and the justice system. This term also refers to the fields of practice and study concerned with those activities, and to a social and professional movement that advocates greater societal commitment to educating people about the law. Anna-Marie Marshall explains that "in order to realize their rights, people need to take the initiative to articulate them. This initiative, in turn, depends on the availability and the relevance of legal schema to people confronting problems." This is because laws exist as part of a larger organizational ecosystem in which the interests of the organization as well as those of the actors become inextricably linked to the ways in which they are enacted.
Distinct from the education of students in law school seeking a degree in law (which is often simply called "legal education") and the continuing professional education of lawyers and judges (which is sometimes called "continuing legal education"), public legal education is principally aimed at people who are not lawyers, judges, or degree-seeking law students.
The term "public legal education" (PLE) is related to, and may encompass, several similar terms. The terms "public legal information" and "public legal education and information" (PLEI) emphasize a difference between educating and providing information. The term "community legal education" is common in Australia and the United States, where it often refers to community-based public legal education activities led by legal aid organizations. The term "law-related education" (LRE) usually refers to public legal education in primary and secondary schools (and sometimes in higher education), as opposed to PLE for adults and outside of school.Cassidy, Wanda (2000). "Law-Related Education: Promoting Awareness, Participation, and Action", 297–98, in Weaving Connections: Educating for Peace, Social and Environmental Justice (Tara Goldstein & David Selby, eds.). .
Definition of Legal awareness According to the American Bar Association, Commission on Public Understanding, legal awareness is "the ability to make critical judgments about the substance of the law, the legal process, and available legal resources and to effectively utilize the legal system and articulate strategies to improve it is legal literacy".
The Canadian Bar Association (1992, 23) defines legal literacy as "the ability to understand words used in a legal context, to draw conclusions from them, and then to use those conclusions to take action."
With little change to the Multiple Action Research Group's (MARG, an NGO working for the promotion of legal awareness) definition, legal awareness can be defined as "critical knowledge of legal provisions and processes, coupled with the skills to use this knowledge to respect and realize rights and entitlements".
Thought, philosophy, and different approaches to legal literacy
The "continuum approach" considers legal literacy as "a capacity spread along a continuum, with lawyers and judges at one end and relatively incapable laypersons at the other". This approach was adopted by the legal scholar White who considered legal literacy to mean "that degree of competence in legal discourse required for meaningful and active life in our increasingly legalistic and litigious culture".
Author Bilder (1999) defines legal literacy as a "spectrum of functional skills", related to the conduct of litigation. The continuum approach explains, "a certain degree of legal literacy is required for effective participation in modern society, but it is not necessary for the average citizen to reach the professional standard of 'thinking (and writing) like a lawyer.'"
One of the recent approaches considers legal literacy as a metaphor. According to this view, the term is "intended to suggest some parallels between the institution of the law, and a system of language to be mastered, knowledge gained and understanding achieved".(Manley-Casimir, Michael E., Wanda M. Cassidy, and Suzanne de Castell 1986, 47) These authors suggest that the term legal literacy can also function as a model for educators who seek to promote such literacy. Proponents of legal literacy may thus look to the teaching of language for guidance.
Need and importance Anoop Kumar, a researcher of Legal Literacy Mission, says in his study, "the legislature of the state and the parliament, while enacting the legislation, consider the objectives of it. Some laws lay down the substantive rights of the masses and some touch upon the procedural aspect of certain laws. But it is due to lack of awareness of beneficiaries that most of the legislations are ineffective at the stage of their execution."Kumar, Anoop, Social science research network National Legal Literacy Mission - An Evaluative Analysis Beljaars, Ben. "Implementing Legal Information Literacy: A Challenge for the Curriculum", International Journal of Legal Information. Journal. Feb. 2015.
Without (legal) literacy people can get intimidated and alienated from law. This may evolve into a situation which results in people coming into conflict with the law, or being unable to obtain help from it. Courts have acknowledged the barrier raised by a lack of literacy to asserting guaranteed rights effectively. Low literacy may block people's access to justice. At times, literacy requirements have been used to block access to rights and benefits.Preber, B. J. Financial Expert Witness Communication: A Practical Guide to Reporting and Testimony, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. May 2014. Hoboken, NJ, US
Goals and objectives
Goals of the legal literacy programs can be broadly divided in three types. Namely educational, competency and critical.
In Reading the Legal World, author Laird Hunter expects legal literacy to achieve:Kumar, Anoop, National Legal Literacy Mission - An Evaluative Analysis (March 26, 2013). "People using the legal system must be able to guide themselves through a process that they understand ... and, at appropriate places along the way." recognize they have a legal right or responsibility, in order to exercise or assume it; recognize when a problem or conflict is a legal conflict and when a legal solution is available; know how to take the necessary action to avoid problems and where this is not possible, how to help themselves appropriately; know how and where to find information on the law, and be able to find information that is accessible to them, know when and how to obtain suitable legal assistance; have confidence that the legal system will provide a remedy, and understand the process clearly enough to perceive that justice has been done
Depending on the goals there can be a number of objectives for legal literacy programs.
List of possible objectives: raising awareness and building capacity training of trainers community education and legal empowerment exposing law students to social justice work strengthening community solidarity and supporting grass-roots advocacy
Methods adopted to promote legal awareness There have been many cases where governments have promoted long-term legal literacy missions or awareness campaigns. An example of this is when institutions arrange legal literacy events.
Legal awareness is also achieved through camps, lectures, and interactive workshops or crash programs on the essential and elementary legal laws. Among the general public, many wish to spend time listening to scholars on contemporary issues that have significant bearing on the rights and livelihood of ordinary people. Other methods are road shows, radio talks, street and theatre plays, as well as the publication of relevant books, periodicals, posters, and charts that deal with particular laws, the distribution of pamphlets, brochures, and stickers, the display of paintings, illustrations in comics, and other ways to ensure publicity for various legal mobilisation activities.
Strategically located display boards in public places (railway stations, bus stations, market places, in front of major government offices and police stations) are also used to help government officials, police, and the public to understand the spirit of law.
Obstacles According to Lorenzo Cotula, laws are usually published in the official gazette, few people outside legal circles have access to legal information. Illiteracy, economic barriers, " Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights" page 6 from Note by the Secretary-General on Extreme poverty and human rights for UN GA 67th session A67/278 Distri:General 9 Aug 2012 www.ohchr.org webpage retrieved 30 March 2013 16.00 IST language barriers, social taboosArise: A Women's Developmental Magazine Published by Acfode, Issues 2-16 snippet view as seen/referred to on 30 March 2013 on Google books and a lack of zeal among the legal fraternity may lead to obstacles in gaining requisite levels of legal literacy. According to Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, at times lack of zeal among lawyers make them prone to saying no and killing a deal rather than working through the issues and finding solutions that are both practical and legally sound.
In a note to the UN General Assembly 67th session, the UN Secretary General states, "the deprivations that persons living in poverty encounter throughout their lives — lack of access to quality education, reduced access to information, limited political voice and social capital — translate into lower levels of legal literacy and awareness of their rights, creating social obstacles to seeking redress".
The absence of a legal culture and the resulting illiteracy are the main reasons for the large number of cases in the courts. If the accused citizen knows that an act is a crime punishable by law, they may not do it. website retrieved 30 March 2013
In the domain of law a vast category of users need to exchange legal information worldwide and carry out activities in a context where a common understanding of law beyond language is highly desirable. However, this requirement is hard to meet, due to the variety of languages and modes in which the legal discourse is expressed as well as to the diversity of legal orders and the legal concepts on which these systems are founded.Multilingual Legal Information Access: an Overview- Ginevra Peruginelli Retrieved 30 March 2013