unlegislate

English

Etymology

un- +‎ legislate

Verb

unlegislate (third-person singular simple present unlegislates, present participle unlegislating, simple past and past participle unlegislated)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To undo or annul legislation.
   • 1963, U.S. Congress, Hearings, volume 2, page 81:

     […] legislated it into being, and having done that, I do not know how to unlegislate it. People talk about doing away with some of this legislation. The time is 25 years past when we could have done away with much of the labor legislation.

   • 1981, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Butler and Sheldon Nominations: Hearing Before the Committee:

     Those who enjoyed that posture are now somewhat concerned that we might go the other route, maybe unlegislate by regulation which I think is not too bad.

   • 1990, New Age Journal, volume 7, page 16:

     "Let's unlegislate this. Let's let a woman do what she wants to with her own body."

   • 1997, William Knoke, Bold New World:

     Our governments are top-heavy; bureaucracies, laws, and tax codes are easier to legislate than to "unlegislate"; money is easier to spend than to collect; corruption, cronyism, even nepotism, is more a rule than an exception.