ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to suggest a multi-layered definition of legal culture that concentrates on the solution of a basic problem: why legal orders have the ability to change social reality and why they are sometimes not able to do so on the ground of diffused cultural resistances. It tries to illustrate four complementary models of 'reflexive' legal culture, each of them characterised by ideal typical images of legal and social norms in particular moments of the complex functioning of legal orders. The chapter focuses on a traditional model of legal culture, a reactive model of legal culture, an innovative model of legal culture, and a global model of legal culture. It points out the strategic relevance of these typical forms of legal culture to address some of the main theoretical and empirical problems of the sociology of law from different temporal perspectives. Finally, the chapter briefly considers the possible analogies of legal and political cultures in democratic societies.