PROFESSIONAL LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF JUDGES IN CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARLY RESEARCH

Abstract

The construction of a fair and effective judicial system is impossible without considering the key elements that constitute it, one of which is rightfully the phenomenon of judges’ professional legal consciousness. In Ukraine, this issue is extremely relevant given the high public demand for judicial integrity and the need to enhance trust in the judicial branch of government, whose representatives must, by virtue of their professional, moral, and ethical qualities, be capable of embodying the principles of justice and the rule of law in national adjudication. The issue of judges’ professional legal consciousness – as a distinct, specialized type of legal consciousness that undoubtedly influences the law-enforcement practice of administering justice through the implementation of the concepts of the rule of law, proportionality, and dispositiveness into the system of procedural law – has only recently become the subject of scholarly research. This explains the limited number of dissertations or monographs devoted to the comprehensive study of judges’ professional legal consciousness and its impact on judicial practice. Most studies are local in nature and are presented in individual scholarly articles, which are also not numerous. This is due to the complexity of such research, as it requires not only theoretical developments from the standpoint of legal theory but also their practical integration with real, multifaceted judicial practice. At the same time, scholarly studies of this theoretical and applied institution – judges’ professional legal consciousness – require renewed and conscious examination against the background of the rapid development of social relations and information technologies. However, the advancement of such studies must objectively rely on the foundational research previously conducted by scholars, as these works serve as the basic methodological framework that, on the one hand, prevents duplication and, on the other, shapes further directions of research. This premise explains the analysis of diverse scholarly works devoted to the issue of judges’ professional legal consciousness.