Legal consciousness and the implementation of equality and human rights law in England and Wales

Increasingly, Western governments need not only get things done, but get things done well. In this regard, equality and human rights standards provide a significant framework for governments to improve the quality of their performance. Regulators, inspectorates and ombuds (RIOs) are particularly important in this regard as they are in a privileged position to monitor and assess the implementation of equality and human rights standards by governments. However, as yet, the performance of RIOs has been underwhelming. To investigate this underperformance, this article explores the legal consciousness (i.e. understandings and perceptions of the law) of the individuals responsible for the implementation of equality and human rights laws within a sample of RIOs in England and Wales. Two different types of legal consciousness are identified: law as sacrosanct and law as malleable. The article then explores how these different types of legal consciousness influence implementation. It concludes by highlighting factors that influence an individual’s legal consciousness and ways that these can be enhanced to improve the quality of implementation in the future.