The Intellectual History of the Shortest Article in Law Review History‪.‬

I'm sure you're familiar with The Shortest Article in Law Review History. (1) If perchance you haven't read the piece, take a second and get up to speed. (You can do so right now--no reason to root through musty old issues of the Journal of Legal Education, where Shortest first appeared, (2) or to wait for the abridged version--since "This is it" was, in fact, it. (3)) Shortest has been translated into many languages (4)--not a difficult task, to be sure (5)--and many scholars, obviously taken with the piece, have memorized it. I know I have. I'm ready to declaim Shortest at cocktail parties or while out on the road, on the short circuit. Many have said that Shortest is the best thing I've ever written (6) (or, if you prefer, not written (7)). It's not the most cited article in law review history, (8) and its influence on the development of legal thought is as yet difficult to measure. (9) By any yardstick, however--whatever ruler of law is used--Shortest gets right to the point, without the intellectual baggage--the many satchel pages--that so many law review articles carry. (10)