Structural and Functional Characteristics of Professional Legal Culture
Abstract
Abstract. The article provides a structural and functional analysis of professional legal culture as a complex socio-legal phenomenon that determines the quality and effectiveness of legal activity in the context of a democratic state governed by the rule of law. The relevance of studying professional legal culture is substantiated in view of ensuring human rights and freedoms and forming human capital in the legal sphere. Based on structural-functional, systemic, axiological, activity-based, and hermeneutic approaches, the internal structure of professional legal culture is revealed, and its essence and functional purpose are defined. It is proven that professional legal culture is an integral formation that combines mental and praxeological components. The mental block includes professional legal consciousness and professional legal orientation, which perform orientational, value-normative, motivational, and regulatory functions in professional legal activity. The praxeological block encompasses the organizational and legal content of legal activity and legal practice, which ensure institutional orderliness, professional discipline, coherence of actions, and the implementation of legal norms. It is substantiated that each structural element of professional legal culture performs independent functions; however, only through their interaction is the main purpose of legal activity achieved. It is concluded that professional legal culture acts as an indicator of the state of the legal system and the level of law and order, and its development is a necessary condition for the effective functioning of legal institutions and the strengthening of the rule-of-law state.
Keywords: culture; profession; legal consciousness; legal activity; legal practice; professional orientation.
Downloads
References
Bubon, T. (2021). Culture as the realization of reason in Hegel’s reflections. The place and role of G.W.F. Hegel’s ideological heritage in European and world history: proceedings of the International Scientific Conference (pp. 46-49). Kyiv: Lira-K. Retrieved from https://ela.kpi.ua/handle/ 123456789/47163
Cooke, E. (2022). The working culture of legal aid lawyers: Developing a shared orientation model. Social & Legal Studies, 31, 704-724. DOI: 10.1177/09646639211060809
Didukh, M.M. (2021). Professional orientation as a dynamic quality of personality. Legal Psychology, 1(28), 56-64. DOI: 10.33270/03212801.56
Husariev, S.D. (2011). Activity-based approach in the structure of methodology of modern jurisprudence. Almanac of Law, 2, 29-33. Retrieved from https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/
Korinnyi, M.M., & Shevchenko, V.F. (2003). Short encyclopedic dictionary of culture. Kyiv: Ukraina.
Kremin, V.H. (Ed.). (2008). Encyclopedia of education. Kyiv: Inter.
Liebiedieva, Yu.O. (2020). Features of the formation of legal culture in Ukrainian society. Politology Bulletin, 84, 128-146. DOI: 10.17721/2415-881x.2020.84.128-146
Malyha, V.A., & Repetskyi, V.M. (2025). Professional culture of an international lawyer: features of formation and content. Law journal of Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University, 2, 63-71. DOI: 10.31558/2786-5835.2025.2.7
Mykolaienko, N.M. (2014). Professional culture: analysis of scientific research. Scientific Bulletin of Uzhhorod National University. Series "Pedagogy, Social Work", 32, 120-123. Retrieved from https://surl.li/dkcilx
Roux, T.R. (2021). The role of legal-professional culture in constitutional interpretation. University of New South Wales. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3923923
Savetchuk, N.M. (2022). The role of a lawyer’s professional culture in legal practice. Current problems of improving the current legislation of Ukraine, 60, 257-268. DOI: 10.15330/apiclu.60.257-268
Shevchenko, N.F. (2021). Research on the features of educational and professional attitudes in the structure of students’ professional consciousness. Psychological Journal, 7(5) 17-25. DOI: 10.31108/1.2021.7.5.1
Slyvka, S.S. (2002). Philosophical and legal problems of professional culture of a lawyer. Extended abstract of Doctor’s thesis. Kharkiv.
Tkachova, N.O. (2012). Professional legal culture, its content and role in the further civilized development of Ukraine. Legal Bulletin. Air and Space Law, 3, 154-158. Retrieved from http://nbuv.gov.ua/UJRN/Npnau_2012_3_32
Todyka, Yu.M. (2001). Constitutional foundations of legal culture formation. Kharkiv: Raider.
Vlasenko, V.P. (2023). The system-forming role of individual legal culture in the structure of modern civil society. Dnipro Scientific Journal of Public Administration, Psychology and Law, 3, 125-128. DOI: 10.51547/ppp.dp.ua/2023.3
Zelenko, I.P. (2006). Legal culture of internal affairs officers (general theoretical aspect). Extended abstract of candidate’s thesis. Kharkiv.
Abstract views: 19 PDF Downloads: 12
Copyright (c) 2026 Philosophical and Methodological Problems of Law
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Authors reserve the right to authorship of their own work and transfer to the magazine the right of the first publication of this work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows other persons to freely distribute published work with mandatory reference to authors of the original work and the first publication of an article in this magazine.
Authors have the right to enter into separate additional agreements on non-exclusive dissemination of the work in the form in which it was published in the journal (for example, to post an article in the institution's repository or to publish as part of a monograph), provided that the link to the first publication of the work in this journal is maintained.
The journal's policy allows and encourages the posting of articles by authors on the Internet (for example, in electronic storehouses of institutions or on personal websites), both before the submission of this manuscript to the editorial office and during its editorial processing, as this contributes to the creation of a productive scientific discussion and positively affects the efficiency and dynamics of citing the published work.
