Two law librarians, Fred R. Shapiro from Yale and Michelle Pearse from Harvard, have recently compiled a list of The Most-Cited Law Review Articles of All Time.
The article updates two well-known earlier studies dated 1985 and 1996. Using databases such as HeinOnline and Web of Science, the study lists the 100 most-cited legal articles of all time, the 100 most-cited articles of the last twenty years, and some additional rankings.
Three articles in the top 100 of all time list were written by UW Law School professors:
- #15 with 1465 citations, Stewart Macaulay, Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study, 28 Am. Soc. Rev. 55 (1963).
- #37 with 906 citations, Marc Galanter, Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change, 9 Law & Soc’y Rev. 95 (1974).
- #75 with 718 citations 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).