The Rose Theorem?

20 Pages Posted: 20 Nov 2017

See all articles by Michael Heller

Michael Heller

Columbia University - Columbia Law School

Date Written: 2006

Abstract

Law resists theorems. We have hypotheses, typologies, heuristics, and conundrums. But, until now, only one plausible theorem - and that we borrowed from economics. Could there be a second, the Rose Theorem?

Any theorem must generalize, be falsifiable, and have predictive power. Law's theorems, however, seem to require three additional qualities: they emerge from tales of ordinary stuff; are named for, not by, their creators; and have no single authoritative form. For example, Ronald Coase wrote of ranchers and farmers. He has always shied away from the Theorem project. When later scholars formalized his parable, they created multiple and inconsistent versions. Likewise, Carol Rose writes rich narratives of maypoles and foxes, rivers and roman roads. She offers a theory of human motivation and predictions about our behavior. And we may ask, though she might not, whether the rich alluvial mud of her scholarship crystallizes into a Rose Theorem.

Suggested Citation

Heller, Michael, The Rose Theorem? (2006). Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Vol. 18, No. 3, 2006, Columbia Public Law Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3072666

Michael Heller (Contact Author)

Columbia University - Columbia Law School ( email )

435 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10025
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
54
Abstract Views
826
Rank
675,887
PlumX Metrics