ABSTRACT

How does one think about the past and about its grip on the present? Some have said that we can either accept the past and its teaching or we can think about it critically. Tradition would therefore exist, but everyone would have the option of either being an adherent to it or of being an external critic, free to move on to other concerns. For centuries of Western thought, tradition has been associated with static forms of social order. 1 A traditional society was one that did not change and that was largely impervious to valid reason for change. 2 Legal culture, in its most general sense, is one way of describing relatively stable patterns of legally oriented social behaviour and attitudes. 3