Ranking of the top 100 legal most-cited articles of all time

List of the top 100 legal most-cited articles of all time in ranking order

Ranking of the top 100 legal most-cited articles of all time, according to Shapiro

Below is the ranking of the top 100 most-cited articles of all time, according to “The most-cited law review articles of all time”, by Fred R. Shapiro and Michelle Pearse, published in the Michigan Law Review and available at ww.michiganlawreview.org/assets/pdfs/110/8/Shapiro_and_Pearse.pdf.

According to the article, some areas, such as constitutional law, civil procedure, contracts, property, torts, and criminal law, “have large scholarly literatures affording ample opportunities for being cited. Other areas have smaller literatures and less opportunity for
citations that could earn articles in these fields inclusion on “most-cited rosters”. These include, and are presented in other tables of the article, antitrust law, corporate and securities law, family law, intellectual property, international law, labor and employment law, and legal ethics and legal profession.

1. 5157 R.H. Coase, The Problem of Social Cost , 3 J.L. & Econ. 1 (1960).
2. 3678 Samuel D. Warren & Louis D. Brandeis, The Right to Privacy , 4 Harv. L. Rev.
193 (1890).
3. 3138 O.W. Holmes, The Path of the Law , 10 Harv. L. Rev. 457 (1897).
4. 2771 Gerald Gunther, The Supreme Court, 1971 Term-Foreword: In Search of Evolving Doctrine on a Changing Court: A Model for a Newer Equal Protection, 86 Harv.
L. Rev. 1 (1972).
5. 2343 Herbert Wechsler, Toward Neutral Principles of Constitutional Law , 73 Harv. L.
Rev. 1 (1959).
6. 1980 Guido Calabresi & A. Douglas Melamed, Property Rules, Liability Rules, and
Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral, 85 Harv. L. Rev. 1089 (1972).
7. 1874 Charles A. Reich, The New Property , 73 Yale L.J. 733 (1964).
8. 1794 Charles R. Lawrence III, The Id, the Ego, and Equal Protection: Reckoning with
Unconscious Racism, 39 Stan. L. Rev. 317 (1987).
9. 1701 William J. Brennan, Jr., State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual
Rights, 90 Harv. L. Rev. 489 (1977).
10. 1653 Robert H. Bork, Neutral Principles and Some First Amendment Problems, 47 Ind.
L.J. 1 (1971).
11. 1600 Abram Chayes, The Role of the Judge in Public Law Litigation , 89 Harv. L. Rev.
1281 (1976).
12. 1580 Frank I. Michelman, Property, Utility, and Fairness: Comments on the Ethical
Foundations of “Just Compensation” Law, 80 Harv. L. Rev. 1165 (1967).
13. 1538 William L. Prosser, The Assault upon the Citadel (Strict Liability to the
Consumer), 69 Yale L.J. 1099 (1960).
14. 1485 Duncan Kennedy, Form and Substance in Private Law Adjudication, 89 Harv. L.
Rev. 1685 (1976).
15. 1465 Stewart Macaulay, Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study ,
28 Am. Soc. Rev. 55 (1963).
16. 1370 Robert M. Cover, The Supreme Court, 1982 Term-Foreword: Nomos and
Narrative, 97 Harv. L. Rev. 4 (1983).
17. 1299 Anthony G. Amsterdam, Perspectives on the Fourth Amendment, 58 Minn. L. Rev.349 (1974).
18. 1286 Angela P. Harris, Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory, 42 Stan. L.
Rev. 581 (1990).
19. 1236 Robert H. Mnookin & Lewis Kornhauser, Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law:
The Case of Divorce, 88 Yale L.J. 950 (1979).
20. 1224 John Hart Ely, The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade, 82 Yale
L.J. 920 (1973).
21. 1195 William L. Cary, Federalism and Corporate Law: Reflections upon Delaware, 83
Yale L.J. 663 (1974).
22. 1167 Owen M. Fiss, Against Settlement, 93 Yale L.J. 1073 (1984).
23. 1065 H.L.A. Hart, Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals , 71 Harv. L. Rev.
593 (1958).
24. 1034 Paul Brest, The Misconceived Quest for the Original Understanding, 60 B.U. L.
Rev. 204 (1980).
25. 1024 Frank I. Michelman, The Supreme Court, 1968 Term-Foreword: On Protecting
the Poor through the Fourteenth Amendment, 83 Harv. L. Rev. 7 (1969).
1490 Michigan Law Review [Vol. 110:1483
26. 1023 Lon L. Fuller, The Forms and Limits of Adjudication, 92 Harv. L. Rev. 353 (1978).
27. 1017 Owen M. Fiss, The Supreme Court, 1978 Term-Foreword: The Forms of Justice, 93 Harv. L. Rev. 1 (1979).
28. 988 Herbert Wechsler, The Political Safeguards of Federalism: The Role of the States in the Composition and Selection of the National Government, 54 Colum. L. Rev. 543 (1954).
29. 978 Henry G. Manne, Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control, 73 J. Pol. Econ.
110 (1965).
30. 976 William L. Prosser, The Fall of the Citadel (Strict Liability to the Consumer), 50
Minn. L. Rev. 791 (1966).
31. 975 Joseph L. Sax, Takings and the Police Power, 74 Yale L.J. 36 (1964).
32. 948 Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Race, Reform, and Retrenchment: Transformation
and Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law, 101 Harv. L. Rev. 1331 (1988).
33. 947 Mari J. Matsuda, Public Response to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim’s
Story, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 2320 (1989).
34. 942 Frank H. Easterbrook & Daniel R. Fischel, The Proper Role of a Target’s
Management in Responding to a Tender Offer, 94 Harv. L. Rev. 1161 (1981).
35. 932 William W. Van Alstyne, The Demise of the Right-Privilege Distinction in
Constitutional Law, 81 Harv. L. Rev. 1439 (1968).
36. 931 Antonin Scalia, The Rule of law as a Law of Rules, 56 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1175 (1989).
37. 906 Marc Galanter, Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of
Legal Change, 9 Law & Soc’y Rev. 95 (1974).
38. 905 Henry M. Hart, Jr., The Power of Congress to Limit the Jurisdiction of Federal
Courts: An Exercise in Dialectic, 66 Harv. L. Rev. 1362 (1953).
39. 900 Felix S. Cohen, Transcendental Nonsense and the Functional Approach, 35
Colum. L. Rev. 809 (1935).
40. 895 Alexander Meiklejohn, The First Amendment Is an Absolute, 1961 Sup. Ct. Rev.
245 (1961).
41. 891 Thomas I. Emerson, Toward a General Theory of the First Amendment, 72 Yale
L.J. 877 (1963).
42. 890 Margaret Jane Radin, Market-Inalienability , 100 Harv. L. Rev. 1849 (1987).
43. 882 Karl N. Llewellyn, Remarks on the Theory of Appellate Decision and the Rules or
Canons about How Statutes Are to Be Construed, 3 Vand. L. Rev. 395 (1950).
44. 872 Kimberlé Crenshaw, Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and
Violence Against Women of Color, 43 Stan. L. Rev. 1241 (1991).
45. 869 William L. Prosser, Privacy, 48 Calif. L. Rev. 383 (1960).
46. (tie) 856 Joseph L. Sax, The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective
Judicial Intervention, 68 Mich. L. Rev. 471 (1970).
46. (tie) 856 Cass R. Sunstein, Interest Groups in American Public Law, 38 Stan. L. Rev. 29 (1985).
48. 838 Henry J. Friendly, “Some Kind of Hearing” , 123 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1267 (1975).
49. 831 L.L. Fuller & William R. Perdue, Jr., The Reliance Interest in Contract Damages,
46 Yale L.J. 52 (1936).
50. 820 Wesley N. Hohfeld, Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial
Reasoning, 23 Yale L.J. 16 (1913).
51. 819 Friedrich Kessler, Contracts of Adhesion-Some Thoughts about Freedom of
Contract, 43 Colum. L. Rev. 629 (1943).
52. 816 Richard B. Stewart, The Reformation of American Administrative Law , 88 Harv.
L. Rev. 1667 (1975).
53. (tie) 814 Felix Frankfurter, Some Reflections on the Reading of Statutes, 47 Colum. L. Rev. 527 (1947).
53. (tie) 814 Lon L. Fuller, Positivism and Fidelity to Law-A Reply to Professor Hart , 71
Harv. L. Rev. 630 (1958).
55. 812 Thomas C. Grey, Do We Have an Unwritten Constitution?, 27 Stan. L. Rev. 703
(1975).
56. 798 James B. Thayer, The Origin and Scope of the American Doctrine of
Constitutional Law, 7 Harv. L. Rev. 129 (1893).
57. 783 Christine Jolls, Cass R. Sunstein & Richard Thaler, A Behavioral Approach to Law
and Economics, 50 Stan. L. Rev. 1471 (1998).
58. 782 Anthony G. Amsterdam, Note, The Void-for-Vagueness Doctrine in the Supreme
Court, 109 U. Pa. L. Rev. 67 (1960).
59. 778 Frank Michelman, Law’s Republic , 97 Yale L.J. 1493 (1988).
60. 775 Margaret Jane Radin, Property and Personhood, 34 Stan. L. Rev. 957 (1982).
61. 774 George L. Priest & Benjamin Klein, The Selection of Disputes for Litigation, 13 J.
Legal Stud. 1 (1984).
62. 771 Frances E. Olsen, The Family and the Market: A Study of Ideology and Legal
Reform, 96 Harv. L. Rev. 1497 (1983).
63. 766 Ian Ayres & Robert Gertner, Filling Gaps in Incomplete Contracts: An Economic
Theory of Default Rules, 99 Yale L.J. 87 (1989).
64. 765 Richard A. Posner, Theories of Economic Regulation , 5 Bell J. Econ. & Mgmt.
Sci. 335 (1974).
65. 752 John Rawls, Two Concepts of Rules, 64 Phil. Rev. 3 (1955).
66. 749 John W. Wade, On the Nature of Strict Tort Liability for Products, 44 Miss. L.J.
825 (1973).
67. 744 Cass R. Sunstein, Beyond the Republican Revival , 97 Yale L.J. 1539 (1988).
68. 743 Richard Delgado, Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for Narrative,
87 Mich. L. Rev. 2411 (1989).
69. 739 Guido Calabresi, Some Thoughts on Risk Distribution and the Law of Torts, 70
Yale L.J. 499 (1961).
70. 734 Arthur Allen Leff, Unconscionability and the Code-The Emperor’s New Clause,
115 U. Pa. L. Rev. 485 (1967).
71. 732 H. Jefferson Powell, The Original Understanding of Original Intent , 98 Harv. L.
Rev. 885 (1985).
72. 728 Philip Areeda & Donald F. Turner, Predatory Pricing and Related Practices Under
Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 88 Harv. L. Rev. 697 (1975).
73. 726 Ronald J. Gilson & Reinier H. Kraakman, The Mechanisms of Market Efficiency,
70 Va. L. Rev. 549 (1984).
74. 722 William N. Eskridge, Jr., The New Textualism, 37 UCLA L. Rev. 621 (1990).
75. 718 Marc Galanter, Reading the Landscape of Disputes: What We Know and Don’t
Know (And Think We Know) About Our Allegedly Contentious and Litigious
Society, 31 UCLA L. Rev. 4 (1983).
76. 717 Henry J. Friendly, In Praise of Erie-and of the New Federal Common law , 39
N.Y.U. L. Rev. 383 (1964).
77. 715 Charles Fairman, Does the Fourteenth Amendment Incorporate the Bill of Rights?
The Original Understanding, 2 Stan. L. Rev. 5 (1949).
78. 714 Mark V. Tushnet, Following the Rules Laid Down: A Critique of Interpretivism and
Neutral Principles, 96 Harv. L. Rev. 781 (1983).
79. (tie) 708 Frank I. Michelman, The Supreme Court, 1985 Term-Foreword: Traces of Self-Government, 100 Harv. L. Rev. 4 (1986).
79. (tie) 708 Henry P. Monaghan, The Supreme Court, 1974 Term-Foreword: Constitutional Common law , 89 Harv. L. Rev. 1 (1975).
81. 700 John Hart Ely, Legislative and Administrative Motivation in Constitutional Law, 79
Yale L.J. 1205 (1970).
82. 696 Paul Brest, The Supreme Court, 1975 Term-Foreword: In Defense of the
Antidiscrimination Principle, 90 Harv. L. Rev. 1 (1976).
83. 688 Laurence H. Tribe, Trial by Mathematics: Precision and Ritual in the Legal
Process, 84 Harv. L. Rev. 1329 (1971).
84. 685 Henry B. Hansmann, The Role of Nonprofit Enterprise, 89 Yale L.J. 835 (1980).
1492 Michigan Law Review [Vol. 110:1483
85. 684 Harry T. Edwards, The Growing Disjunction between Legal Education and the
Legal Profession, 91 Mich. L. Rev. 34 (1992).
86. 680 Neil Gotanda, A Critique of “Our Constitution Is Color-Blind” , 44 Stan. L. Rev.
1 (1991).
87. 678 Martha Minow, The Supreme Court, 1986 Term-Foreword: Justice Engendered,
101 Harv. L. Rev. 10 (1987).
88. 673 Alan David Freeman, Legitimizing Racial Discrimination through
Antidiscrimination Law: A Critical Review of Supreme Court Doctrine, 62 Minn.
L. Rev. 1049 (1978).
89. 671 Ian R. Macneil, Contracts: Adjustment of Long-Term Economic Relations Under
Classical, Neoclassical, and Relational Contract Law, 72 Nw. U. L. Rev. 854
(1978).
90. 667 Lawrence Gene Sager, Fair Measure: The Legal Status of Underenforced
Constitutional Norms, 91 Harv. L. Rev. 1212 (1978).
91. 666 Henry M. Hart, Jr., The Supreme Court, 1958 Term-Foreword: The Time Chart of
the Justices, 73 Harv. L. Rev. 84 (1959).
92. (tie) 663 Edwin M. Borchard, Government Liability in Tort, 34 Yale L.J. 1 (1924).
92. (tie) 663 Catharine A. MacKinnon, Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Toward
Feminist Jurisprudence, 8 Signs 635 (1983).
94. (tie) 656 Charles L. Black, Jr., The Supreme Court, 1966 Term-Foreword: “State Action,” Equal Protection, and California’s Proposition 14, 81 Harv. L. Rev. 69 (1967).
94. (tie) 656 Jonathan R. Macey, Promoting Public-Regarding Legislation through Statutory
Interpretation: An Interest Group Model, 86 Colum. L. Rev. 223 (1986).
96. 655 Mari J. Matsuda, Looking to the Bottom: Critical Legal Studies and Reparations,
22 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 323 (1987).
97. 653 Akhil Reed Amar, Of Sovereignty and Federalism, 96 Yale L.J. 1425 (1987).
98. 649 Paul M. Bator, Finality in Criminal Law and Federal Habeas Corpus for State
Prisoners, 76 Harv. L. Rev. 441 (1963).
99. 646 Owen M. Fiss, Objectivity and Interpretation, 34 Stan. L. Rev. 739 (1982).
100. 645 Alexander M. Bickel, The Supreme Court, 1960 Term-Foreword: The Passive
Virtues, 75 Harv. L. Rev. 40 (1961).

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Mentioned in these Entries

Beyond the Republican Revival, Common law, Constitutions, Education, Law’s Republic, List of top 10 most-cited legal articles in Antitrust law, List of top 10 most-cited legal articles in corporate and securities law, List of top 10 most-cited legal articles in family law, List of top 10 most-cited legal articles in intellectual property, List of top 10 most-cited legal articles in international law, List of top 10 most-cited legal articles in labor and employment law, List of top 10 most-cited legal articles in legal ethics and legal profession, Market-Inalienability, Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study, Positivism and Fidelity to Law-A Reply to Professor Hart, Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals, Rule of law, The New Property, The Original Understanding of Original Intent, The Path of the Law, The Problem of Social Cost, The Reformation of American Administrative Law, The Right to Privacy, The Role of the Judge in Public Law Litigation, Theories of Economic Regulation, Toward Neutral Principles of Constitutional Law, Unconscionability.