ABSTRACT
Why does legal reform happen? Is it triggered by a preceding change in society, as legislators become aware of the necessity to adjust the legal system to a new social reality, or does the law more frequently act as a tool for changing society? Is the discussion of social change at all relevant to the analysis of legal reform, or should law be understood not as the natural outgrowth of a particular society but as an intellectual creation of lawyers that is not socially determined and is therefore easily transferable to other countries? What are the determinants of success and failure of a legal reform? These questions lie at the very core of the ongoing academic debate regarding the origins and nature of law.
