Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:56

From: David Cheifetz

Subject: Hunting the Gowk

To clarify - I'm excluding Donoghue v Stevenson which is (at least) arguably the best answer to the question as I phrased it. It's certainly up there for weighted-winner when impact is measured against the number of words. But, it's not short.

So, I'll take out the "most" in front of upset and emphasize we're measuring the brevity of the decision for decisions that have caused enough of a tempest to be worth considering.

David

-----Original Message-----
From: David Cheifetz
Sent: March 25, 2007 7:47 AM
Subject: ODG: Hunting the Gowk

Dear Colleagues:

Awhile back, we nominated candidates for the longest decision by a Commonwealth court. On the opposite tack, and in honour of the approaching vernal equinox, I suggest we have nominations for the decision of a Commonwealth penultimate or ultimate appellate court, including the Privy Council, that is the shortest decision (by word count) and which has caused or has the potential to cause the most upset in a jurisdiction's civil law, or Commonwealth civil law. The count should include just the text of the reasons, not headnote stuff, paragraph numbers etc.

For Canada, clocking in at about 2860 words, I offer Resurfice v Hanke 2007 SCC 7.

The prize will be a metaphorical forelock tug.

I appreciate that the predilection for seriatim judgments from Australia's High Court and the House of Lords puts those courts at a disadvantage. Tough.

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