Mark Kelman Explained

Mark Kelman (born August 20, 1951) is jurist and vice dean of Stanford Law School. As a prominent legal scholar, he has applied social science methodologies, including economics and psychology, to the study of law. He is one of the most cited law professors.[1] He is regarded as one of the co-founders of the critical legal studies movement and authored "A Guide to Critical Legal Studies." He is widely known for his influential[2] 1978 critique of the Coase theorem,[3] a core part of law and economics.

He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.[4]

Narrative

Being a published novelist, Kelman is well aware of the role of narrative in forming a sense of personal identity[5] - as also of the way narratives may be incriminating or exculpatory, depending on the time frame used.[6]

Thus, for example, when viewed in a long enough time-frame, a criminal act which appears at first sight the result of individual responsibility may, Kelman suggests, be instead the deterministic result of socio-economic conditions.[7]

Rational rhetoricism

Kelman argues that much in the law involves providing rational interpretative constructs that surround a non-rational core – what he terms 'rational rhetoricism'[8] with the result that, in his words, "It is illuminating and disquieting to see that we are nonrationally constructing the legal world over and over again....".[9]

Stanley Fish has proposed in rebuttal that such rhetorical constructs are in fact a necessary aspect of the human condition, and thus an inevitable facet of the legal world as well.[10]

See also

Publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Brian Leiter Most Cited Law Professors by Specialty, 2000-2007.
  2. Web site: Archived copy . 2011-02-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120319233505/http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/mikhail/documents/CLC_Three_Commentaries.pdf . 2012-03-19 . dead .
  3. Web site: Redirecting.
  4. Web site: Mark G. Kelman.
  5. Robin West, Narrative, Authority, and Law (1993) p. 254
  6. G. Binder/R. Weisberg, Literary Criticism of Law (2000) p. 264
  7. Stanley Fish, Doing What Comes Naturally (1989) p. 393-7
  8. Fish, p. 393
  9. Quoted in Fish, p. 395
  10. Fish, p. 395-6