I know this is an oldish question but I found it whilst looking for the same solution. The solution above doesn't appear to work in Laravel 4, you can however use this now:
<a href="\{\{ URL::previous() }}">Go Back</a>
Hope this helps people who look for this feature in L4
Indeed using \{\{ URL:previous() }} do work, but if you're using a same named route to display multiple views, it will take you back to the first endpoint of this route.
In my case, I have a named route, which based on a parameter selected by the user, can render 3 different views. Of course, I have a default case for the first enter in this route, when the user doesn't selected any option yet.
When I use URL:previous(), Laravel take me back to the default view, even if the user has selected some other option. Only using javascript inside the button I accomplished to be returned to the correct view: