Introduction: Property and Language, or, the Ghost of the Fifth Panel

Abstract

It is gratifying, hugely flattering, and at the same time somewhat embarrassing to have to open a conference and then a symposium issue on one's own academic work. No doubt understanding this embarrassment, my colleague and good friend Ian Ayres suggested a way out: since the conference was named "The Properties of Carol Rose," I should take the occasion to talk about the various residences I have owned. A great idea, and I did indeed think about it, because as Ian knows, I have had good luck in that dimension, with more than my share of weird and interesting addresses.

But as intriguing as Ian's idea would have been, there was really another topic altogether that I thought I should address at the opening of the conference and now this symposium issue. That topic is the Missing Fifth Panel, or as I will sometimes call it in this Introduction, the Ghost Panel.