Legal Education Of Student Youth

The concept of "legal education of student youth" in modern science

We will consider the concept of "eduction", which can be used in modern science in a narrow and broad sense. In a narrow sense, education is seen as the process and the result of educational work, aimed at solving specific educational problems. In a broad sense, education is a social phenomenon, the formation of a socially active person (Strelyaeva, 2006).

Dolgopolov (2014) says that education is a relatively meaningful and targeted nurturing of a person in accordance with the specifics of goals, groups and organizations in which it is carried out.

Kostina (2013) singles out three main interconnected meanings when education is understood as: inner process of formation and development of personality; education as influence of society, social environment on formation of personality (p. 267).

Thus, education is a purposeful process of personality formation through specially organized psychological and pedagogical actions.

The term “legal education” is mostly used in various regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the RF) which regulate the issues of legal awareness, legal literacy and culture.

The purpose of legal education in regulatory documents is the formation of legal culture of the individual (Fundamentals of the state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of the development of legal literacy and legal awareness of citizens, 2011).

The term “legal education” itself appeared only in the 20th century and was widely recognized by the society. According to this term, law is an important component of education. At the present stage of the formation of a civil-law state, legal education plays a primary role in the system of educational policy.

Yurkovskiy (2016) defines legal education as a targeted systematic activity of state bodies as well as public organizations, citizens and their groups, which is aimed at the formation of legal consciousness and legal culture of an individual (p. 10).

Kvasha (2002) looks at legal education through its constituent elements and states that legal education consists in the accumulation, absorption and transfer of knowledge, the foundations of the law and, in developing an appropriate attitude towards law and practice, the ability to exercise one's rights, enforce prohibitions and comply with obligations (p. 113).

In the opinion of Grigorieva and Naumova (2014), legal education is a complex, multilateral process that is designed to carry out significant tasks of developing a high level of legal awareness and legal culture (p. 316).

Thus, we can distinguish two areas in the understanding of legal education. The first one considers targeted improvement of the legal culture of a person, group of people and society. The second views legal socialization of an individual.

Legal education has its own special tasks:

1) formation of a respectful attitude towards the right and the law;

2) formation of knowledge about personal rights and obligations;

3) ability to independently apply their legal knowledge in practice;

4) development of legal culture;

5) formation of responsibility for personal actions before the law;

6) enhancement of the law's authority.

The legal education of the individual results in legal educatedness, which includes knowledge of legal norms, legal beliefs and legal conduct.

The youth is every new generation that follows and continues the traditions of the older generation. Young people, on the one hand, continue inherited activities, and on the other hand, change old conditions. A special period in the life of the youth is a student age. Usually, age limits range from 15 (16) years to 23.

Students are considered an integral part of the youth and represent a special social group, characterized by special conditions of life, work and life, social behavior, psychology and a system of value orientations. Student youth is the object and subject of social adaptation and socialization. They can become a major participant in social mobility as well as demonstrate incomplete inclusion in socio-political relations. Student youth is the source of social, economic and spiritual development of the country, but they can get in touch with drug addiction and crime.

Legal education of modern student youth is a systematic and purposeful process of influence on the consciousness and psychology of the young generation of the Russian Federation, to form a deep and sustainable legal knowledge, needs and values in their legal consciousness. The main motive for the search and the use of legal information for young people is broadening their horizons, getting general educational and general cultural information. This applies to education, including vocational. The level of the development of civil society, the rule of law and security in the country depend on the quality of legal education.

To a greater extent, legal education is provided in specialized legal educational institutions or in jurisprudence studies. For example, the Tula Police Law College has established a student council of excellent students and activists to help teachers provide legal education to college students, especially first-year students. The College also investigates crimes on the basis of criminal law and conducts criminal trials. In addition, students are actively involved in the game of election campaigning and political debates in classes on the academic discipline of "Political Science".

The students of specialties, apart from jurisprudence direction, have academic disciplines devoted to law only after the third year of study, and the students of technical specialties, as well as students, studying at the faculties of natural sciences, may not have these subjects at all. For example, the students of the Kurgan State University of the educational direction “Organization of work with youth” have discipline “Law” only in their third year, and students of the direction of training “Archeology” have got discipline “Political science” in the third year of their study.

The implementation of legal education for student youth can have following forms:

• holding lectures, discussions, consultations, meetings with guest guests-lawyers;

• distributing booklets, newspapers, posters;

• fulfilling project activity;

• holding debates, equal dialogues, legal dictations;

• trainings, game modeling, case method.

A survey aimed at studying the problems, needs and interests of student youth in the legal field

We have conducted a survey aimed at studying the problems, needs and interests of student youth in the legal field. We conducted the survey among the students of the Kurgan branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy and the State Service of the specialty "State and Municipal Management". The survey involved 34 students.

100% of the respondents have answered “Yes” to the question “Do you think a citizen needs to know his rights and obligations?”

The question “Would you like to know more about your rights and obligations?” has got the answer “Yes” in 85% cases, the rest have given a negative answer.

Further, the interviewees have been asked a question “What is a citizen’s right from the point of view of Jurisprudence?” and 35% of the respondents have chosen the correct answer — “The set of generally binding rules of conduct”, the remaining 65% have chosen the answer - “The ability to choose how to behave” out of the proposed options. Then there was an open-ended question The respondents have been asked to name the most important rights of a citizen. We list several answers: “The right to life,” “The right to freedom of speech,” “Political, economic, social, cultural, and spiritual rights.” Some respondents have had difficulty answering this question.

Further, the respondents have been asked to answer the question “What is a citizen’s obligation in terms of Jurisprudence?”. 70% of students have chosen the correct answer: “The need for behavior prescribed by law”. Another 30% of interviewees have replied that it is “Requirements for what people should do.” The following question also suggested enumerating 3-5 most important constitutional duties of a citizen in the opinion of respondents. We have received answers such as: "Respect for the rights and freedoms of others", "Parents' duty to care for their children", "Everybody's duty to receive basic general education", etc. For some, the answer to this question has also caused difficulties.

In the next question, we asked respondents to evaluate on a 10-point scale how well they are informed about administrative, criminal, civil and family law responsibilities, as well as responsibilities arising from employment and family law relations. We have received the following answers:

1) 40% of students are informed about administrative liability at the level of 10 points, 45% of them are informed at the level of 9 points, 15% - at the level of 8 points and 5% - 5 points;

2) 85% of respondents are informed about criminal liability at the level of 10 points, 15% - at the level of 9 points;

3) 40% of students are informed about civil law liability at the level of 10 points, 25% - at the level of 9 points, 20% - at the level of 8 points, 10% - at the level of 7 points, 5% - at the level of 5 points;

4) speaking of responsibility arising from labor relations, 75% of respondents are informed at the level of 7 points, 20% - at the level of 5 and 5% - at the level of 1 point.

5) speaking of responsibility arising from family relationships, 80% of students are informed at the level of 9 points, 15% - at the level of 8 points and 5% - at the level of 1.

Thus, based on this set of questions, we can conclude that more respondents would like to know more about their rights. The answer to the question “What is the right of a citizen?” has caused difficulty for the majority of the respondents, but at the same time, the majority of the respondents know about the duty of a citizen.

In addition, the survey revealed that the respondents were the least informed about the liability arising from the employment relationship. On this basis, we compiled a set of questions that directly relate to the employment relationship. We will take a closer look at them.

The respondents have been asked the question “What issues of labor law would you like to receive information about?” The question offered 12 answer choices, and it was necessary to choose no more than 5 answers. The respondents most frequently selected the following answers: "Conclusion of an employment contract", "Rights and obligations of the employer", "Rights and obligations of the employee", "Protection of labour rights", "Wage payment" and "Rest time". Respondents were also asked "What basic rights do you know of an employee?" and "What basic duties do you know of an employee?" Answers included the following: “The right to pay for work, the right to paid leave, the right to decent working conditions”, “The right to ensure working conditions at the workplace”. The students are aware of such duties as “Observance of labor discipline and the performance of their labor duties”, “Work according to an employment contract”. Further, the respondents have been asked the question “What relates to disciplinary actions of an employee?” and 8 possible answers are proposed: fine, reprimand, dismissal, warning, severe reprimand, loss of bonus, advance and your own version. To this question, only 40% of respondents gave the correct answer: “Warning, reprimand, dismissal.” 15% gave the answer: “Warning, reprimand, advance.” 20% chose: “Reprimand, loss of bonus, dismissal.” 15% answered: “Fine, reprimand, dismissal”. 5% chose all answer options.

Thus, this set of questions allowed us to determine what respondents would like to know about the labour law relations.

At the end of the survey, we were asked the following questions:

1) “Are there any classes (events), aimed at legal information and legal education, at your educational institution?”;

2) “If you have answered yes to the previous question, who holds classes (events), aimed at legal information and legal education?”;

3) “If you have answered yes to the previous question, how often are such classes (events) held at your institution?”;

4) “If you have answered yes to the previous question, rate on a 10-point scale the use of classes (events), aimed at legal information and legal education in your educational institution?”;

5) “In your opinion, is there a need for additional measures combining theoretical and practical legal training for students of non-major (non-legal) specialties?”.

For the first question, 60% of respondents answered "Yes", while 40% gave a negative answer. The respondents gave the following answers to the second question: "Teachers" and "Representatives of other state bodies". To the third question we received the answer: "Once a semester (half a year)". Answering the fourth question, 15% of the respondents have rated 6 points, 85% of them have rated 5 points. Answering the last question, 90% of the respondents have given an affirmative answer, the other 10% have given a negative one.