Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 19:51

From: Lionel Smith

Subject: Hunting the Gowk

The relative weighting between impact and shortness will be crucial. If you like tracing (and who doesn't?), the SCC got rid of the rule in Clayton's case in Greymac Trust Co. v. Ontario (Ontario Securities Commission), 1988 CanLII 56, [1988] 2 S.C.R. 172, (1988), 65 O.R. (2d) 479 in only 159 words. Other jurisdictions are still catching up ...

Lionel

On 25/3/07 07:46, "David Cheifetz" wrote:

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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