Governmental influence over rights consciousness: public perceptions of the COVID-19 lockdown

Simon Halliday*, Andrew Jones, Jed Meers, Joe Tomlinson

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

A focus on rights consciousness has become a mainstay of the socio‐legal study of law in everyday life. Such research, much of it critical in orientation, generally uses people's sense of grievance as its starting point. The consequent risk is that we elide rights consciousness with a sense of injustice. This article argues that there is merit for critical studies of legal consciousness in keeping these two things separate, and that this represents a dimension of the critical approach to rights consciousness that is largely missing from the field. We present a study of rights consciousness in relation to the imposition of lockdown in the United Kingdom during the early stage of the COVID‐19 pandemic. We show that, despite regarding lockdown as a violation of basic rights, most people did not feel a sense of grievance. Furthermore, rights consciousness was influenced by a range of factors distinct from political orientation, most of which were within the sphere of governmental influence. In this way, governmental power was constitutive of the public's rights consciousness. Further exploration and assessment of when, where, and how this might occur should be part of the critical project of legal consciousness research.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)S83-S101
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Law and Society
Volume51
Issue numberS1
Early online date26 Sept 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2024

Keywords

  • Covid-19
  • rights consciousness
  • critical approach

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  • Law and Compliance During COVID-19

    Halliday, S. (Co-investigator), Tomlinson, J. (Principal Investigator) & Meers, J. (Co-investigator)

    1/04/2031/10/21

    Project: Projects from Previous Employment

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