On a sociological level, the function of legislation in modern society has to be discussed. This has to be done considering the communicative conception of legislation (topic of Bart Van Klink’s contribution). The role of legislation in the production of discourses about our complex modern social reality, and in the constitution of individuals positioning themselves in that reality should be theoretically more precisely identified and empirically studied. On a socio-legal level – in those arenas where sociologically interested jurists meet sociologists specialized in socio-legal research – several factors may explain how marginal the issue of legislation remains. Preference is given to law in action as opposed to law in the books, and to legal pluralism, as opposed to state law. Legislation may be perceived as located in the political domain, where jurists do not play a central role. This issue, however, deserves more attention, if one wants to give an appropriate account of the work of jurists in modern society, challenged to participate in procedures of very different nature, where they have to play with texts of very different types, and to cooperate with many different professions. On a social level, where measures aiming at dealing with inequalities are at stake, one crucial question is the one of the access to the legislation. Here it could be worth defending to revisit the relationship between specialists and non-specialists. At a time when populist trends feed hostility towards expert knowledge, it is urgent to explore ways of facilitating direct access to legislation also to non-specialists, and of empowering them in their relationship to jurists, even if the role of them remains, admittedly, crucial in a complex society.

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Legisprudence,Citizenship,Legislation,Agency Rights

• Sociologia - Ciências Sociais
• Direito - Ciências Sociais