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 widely known for his influential[2] 1978 critique of the Coase theorem,[3] a core part of law and economics.
[7] 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.