The danger of ignorance of the laws

In this article, we will not discuss the importance of legal awareness and the need to spread it in our societies as a culture that contributes to the stability of life, protects the rights of individuals and institutions, combats crime, enhances justice, and achieves sustainable development, etc. Instead, we are here to shed light on the reasons leading to the lack of legal awareness in communities, especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which negatively affects many aspects of social and economic life. To be fair, the last five years have shown signs of what we could call "legal awakening," but it still falls short of the required level and is weaker compared to other societies.

We are not demanding individuals or institutions to study legal sciences or learn them, but we find that the need calls for making legal awareness an essential part of the lives of individuals and organizations, and linking all of this to the law. There are various ways to achieve this goal, and we will delve into them in a future article.

Since this blog adheres to brevity, diagnosing the problem and mentioning practical solutions, we will summarize the key reasons hindering the spread of this important culture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the following points:

1. Lack of awareness about laws and regulations, and the unavailability of attractive, easy-to-understand sources that provide everyone, at all levels, with accessible information about the law in simple and understandable language.

2. Resistance to change: The spread of extremist ideas promoting a culture of ignorance and imitation is one of the strongest cultural and social factors preventing the spread of legal awareness.

3. Weakness in the role of legal institutions: The role of legal institutions in promoting legal culture is essential, and the dissemination of legal awareness is one of the duties of these institutions, notably law firms scattered throughout the country. Unfortunately, their role is mainly limited to providing paid legal services, and most of them lack programs or initiatives to promote legal awareness.

4. Limited contributions: The limited existence of effective legal awareness programs at the community level, except for some government initiatives, is a significant challenge.

5. Weakness in educational institutions: Public education curricula often focus on theoretical aspects of the law, leaving practical applications largely neglected, especially for non-specialized students. Reports have indicated that legal training for law graduates is often lacking in practical application.

6. Lack of contribution from traditional and electronic media in spreading legal awareness, except for sporadic and limited efforts.

After identifying these critical issues, addressing them involves finding practical solutions, fighting the factors that hinder legal awareness, and promoting the legal culture in our societies, both in Saudi Arabia and regionally. This can be achieved by:

1. Launching effective legal awareness programs at the community level, focusing on government and commercial institutions, targeting various age and educational groups.

2. Developing educational curricula to include both the theoretical and practical aspects of the law, and enhancing legal awareness among students.

3. Simplifying legal texts and making them more transparent and understandable.

4. Enhancing the performance, capacity, and efficiency of legal institutions.

5. Implementing programs and plans to change some social habits and traditions that promote legal ignorance.

Certainly, discussing each of these proposed solutions requires more than just an article. What is needed is a sense of responsibility, rigorous analysis, criticism, and the development of plans and programs at the government and private levels to address these issues.