Prof. Olga Nickole Kuyan
6 Oct 2021
2021 Nobel Prize recognises complexity
#congratulatingwinners
On 5 October, Syukuro Manabe (Princeton), Klaus Hasselmann (MPI for Meteorology) and Giorgio Parisi (Sapienza University of Rome) were announced as the winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of complex physical systems.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021
“for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems” with one half jointly to
Syukuro Manabe
Princeton University, USA
Klaus Hasselmann
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
“for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming”
and the other half to
Giorgio Parisi
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
“for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales”
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2021/press-release/
Parisi, a founder of the study of complex systems, enabled the understanding and description of many different and apparently entirely random materials and phenomena in physics, biology and beyond, including the flocking of birds. Early in his career, he also made fundamental contributions to particle physics, the most well-known being the derivation, together with the late Guido Altarelli and others, of the “DGLAP” QCD evolution equations for parton densities. “My mentor Nicola Cabibbo was usually saying that we should work on a problem only if working on the problem is fun,” said Parisi following the announcement. “So I tried to work on something that was interesting and which I believed that had some capacity to add something.”
Complexity theory – a variant of systems theory – views law as an emergent, complex, self-organising system comprised of an interactive network of actors and systems that operate with no overall guiding hand, giving rise to complex, collective behaviour in law communications and actions. Addressing such issues as the unpredictability of legal systems, the ability of legal systems to adapt to changes in society, the importance of context, and the nature of law, the essays look to the implications of a complexity theory analysis for the study of public policy and administrative law, international law and human rights, regulatory practices in business and finance, and the practice of law and legal ethics. These are areas where law, which craves certainty, encounters unending, irresolvable complexity. The complexity theory thinking reshapes and clarify¡ies our understanding of the various problems relating to the theory and practice of law.
Governing complexity in our Initiatives - Studio legale Diffuso, Mindfulness Approch, Golden Hours, Series on Mindfulness, It's fun to walk together - we integrate science, governance, and law to manage accelerating change in our world and legal business.
Complexity is like energy. It cannot be created or destroyed, only moved somewhere else. When our legal services become simpler for clients, lawyers and professionals have to work harder.