The images of law in Russia and France

Abstract

The article describes the results of Russian-French research project concerned with the development, during childhood and adolescence, of individual views of key-concepts utilised in law, and the values which legitimate them. Individual conceptions of legality and subjective rights among Russian and French adolescents are based on fundamentally different views of Guilt, Freedom and Power which represent two opposing but complementary patterns of socialisation.
The theoretical conception and research methods have been elaborated' by Chantal Kourilski-Augeven for a similar research carried out in France and Poland in 1987. The adolescents (180 in Russia and 180 in France) were interviewed in both countries in four school grades: 6th grade (11-12 year-olds), 8th grade (13-14 years-olds), 10th grade (15-16 years-olds) and 11th grade (16-18 years-olds).
The research data show very clearly that the cross-cultural differences of images and representations of legal concepts "determine the weather" much more than the factors of gender and social class. Nevertheless, it appeared possible to find some moderately expressed tendencies characteristic for the clusters "girls" and "boys" in both societies and the "universal" gender trends (in contrast with much more evident - especially in Russian sample - "specific" gender trends). We revealed also that to a certain degree a connection exists between social and cultural resources of families and legal representations of the young people who belong to these families.