Sensitize individuals to the law: the social construction of legal needs and demands

While numerous contemporary studies, in both social psychology and sociology of the law, have addressed legal socialization and legal consciousness on the part of individuals, little work has been done on the complex social construction of the need and demand for legal services. This is by no means a rhetorical question; it involves a number of competing definitions of the relationship between the legal profession and the public, and thus justifies the legal services currently offered. The author shows that policies relating to access to the law and the justice system in France today seek to focus on the user, which means that users must be able to characterize their situation in legal terms and apply to the courts. The process of raising individuals' consciousness of the law is examined against the backdrop of increasing liberalization of social policies.