Abstract

This essay explores the revival of legisprudence as the field within legal studies that is dedicated to researching and teaching about the theory and practice of legislation. While arguing that we are witnessing a global revival of legisprudence, the essay focuses on a cross-Atlantic comparison of the field in the Unites States and in Europe. It explores the parallels, and differences, in the development of legisprudence/legislation in the Unites States and in Europe. This exploration challenges the perception that legisprudence is a new field, and argues that the field has deep and respectable historical roots, but that it has been largely abandoned for most of the twentieth century. It further examines the reasons for this neglect, as well as the reasons for the field’s recent revival since the end of the twentieth century. Finally, it explores the barriers, and potential, for a global cross-national development of the field of legisprudence.