Attitudes of mass public toward legal system of Lithuania

The article deals with issues related to the process of interactions between the legal system of Lithuania and its consumers - ordinary citizens. Positive evaluation and support of institutions of the legal system as well as officials is one of the main requirements for consolidation of democracy. Thus theoretical basis for investigation is theory of legitimacy in analysing how public evaluation of performance of the legal system and its institutions interacts with citizens assessment of laws and their compliance to laws. Firstly, the attitudes toward legal system and effectiveness of performance of legal institutions is analysed. Secondly, the article investigates how people evaluate institutions of the legal system in the context of human rights and freedom. Thirdly, it indicates people's assessment of laws and their compliance to laws as well as factors influencing legal behaviour of population. Attitudes of mass public are analysed in two respects: performance of legal institutions as elements of the legal system, and performance of the legal institutions ensuring interests of people. According to the data, performance of the state and legal institutions in the respect of the effectiveness of the legal system population evaluate better than in the respect of ensuring interests of the population. Data confirms that negative estimation of the performance of legal institutions makes impact on people's compliance to laws. Majority of population tends to evade laws instead to unconditionally to obey them. The main conclusion of the article is that positive assessment of the legal system is an important precondition for people's compliance to laws