STUDY ENVIRONMENT AS A LEGAL CATEGORY

This article was prompted by the disputes often arising in Lithuanian public discourse and concerning the change in the study environment in higher education, the limits of the interpretation of study environment as a legal category, and a certain vacuum in the legal philosophy of the educational system, which prevents proper development of the authentic science of education law. Writing about the study environment means writing about higher education, the law, and the perception of the law, while writing about the interpretation of the study environment should start with the theories of concept interpretation. We will there-fore see that the interpretation of study and environment as legal concepts will undoubtedly link the science of law to hermeneutics, education science, politics, and philosophy. Exami-nation of the study environment as a legal category in the legal discourse about Lithuanian higher education is very poorly developed. This is how the idea for this article came about: to present the perception of the study environment as a legal category through the examination of interdisciplinary public (education) policy and legal research. The article aims to discuss the concept of study environment and its content, to define aspects of the formation (content contexts) of the study environment as a legal category by highlighting methodological positions, and to explain the legal norms that establish the study environment as a legal category.