The Timing of Lawmaking

Edited by Frank Fagan, South Texas College of Law and Saul Levmore, William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School, US

Legal reasoning, pronouncements of judgment, the design and implementation of statutes, and even constitution-making and discourse all depend on timing. This compelling study examines the diverse interactions between law and time, and provides important perspectives on how law's architecture can be understood through time. The book revisits older work on legal transitions and breaks new ground on timing rules, especially with respect to how judges, legislators and regulators use time as a tool when devising new rules. At its core, The Timing of Lawmaking goes directly to the heart of the most basic of legal debates: when should we respect the past, and when should we make a clean break for the future?

‘Without doubt, this book is an important brick in the process to the critical theorization of the relationship between law and time, which was until recently largely underappreciated.'
– iConnect Blog

‘What a terrific topic for a book – and what a rich and tremendous collection of papers! There are fascinating discussions of whether legal deadlines work, whether traditions deserve respect, when consent (to sex) is relevant, when law is durable, and when law takes effect immediately or instead requires people to act to make it effective in the future. The timing is right: read it now!’
– Cass R. Sunstein, Harvard University, US and author of The World According to Star Wars

‘Without doubt, this book Is an important brick In the process to the critical theorization of the relationship between law and time, which was until recently largely underappreciated. The book adequately represents a balanced review onthe Interaction between lawmaking and time, which renders it a valuable material for lawmakers, policymakers and academics alike but also for lawyers, economists and political scientists.’
– International Journal of Constitutional Law