ABSTRACT
Legal consciousness studies have developed since the 1970s as a form of sociolegal scholarship that traces the place of law in everyday life. Studies of legal consciousness have been predominantly US based (Engel, 1984; Ewick & Silbey, 1998; Merry, 1990), although this theoretical framework is becoming increasingly popular in European socio-legal research (Cooper, 1995a; Cowan, 2004; Gies, 2003; Harding, 2006, 2008; Hertogh, 2004, 2009). The history of legal consciousness studies has been presented a number of times (see e.g. Engel, 1998; Sarat & Kearns, 1993a; Silbey, 2005), but it is worth re-telling its story here, as I wish to highlight aspects, limitations and potentials of ‘legal consciousness’ which have particular salience for lesbians and gay men. In this chapter, I therefore turn to an exploration of ‘legal consciousness studies’ as they relate to lesbian and gay lives. I begin with a brief sketch of the development of legal consciousness as a theoretical approach and analytic frame for considering the place of law in everyday life. I then provide an overview of the few legal consciousness studies that have hitherto explored lesbian and gay perspectives (Connolly, 2002; Hull, 2006; Nicol & Smith, 2008; Richman, 2006). In the third part of this chapter, I set out some of the more critical viewpoints on legal consciousness, and suggest that combining legal consciousness with a plural understanding of law will provide a more nuanced understanding of the place of law, regulation and resistance in lesbian and gay lives.
