Abstract
In this article the authors (JUDr. Michal Urban, Mgr.
Petra Hodysová and Jan Kaczor) describe the level of legal literacy of young people and the role of institutional and non-institutional education in the Czech Republic. The concept of legal literacy is by the authors understood as the ability to understand words used in a legal context, draw the appropriate conclusions from them and to use those conclusions to take action, and includes thus the component of knowledge, skills and attitudes.
The article characterises the influence of both the institutional and non-institutional education on the level of legal literacy of young people and provides a critical analysis. First, the authors on the basis of available documents describe the current state of legal literacy of young people.
Than they present the goal in terms of the legal literacy that the Czech Republic sets in the documents of the government or ministries. The second part of the article lists the main barriers to the development of legal literacy of young people and selects the one that possesses according to the authors the greatest potential to become a starter of a positive change - the teachers.
The last part of the article identifies the main obstacles, which prevent teachers from positively influencing the legal literacy of young people. At the very end, the authors propose concrete measures to improve the current situation.