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17 Nova L. Rev. 725 (1992-1993)

handle is hein.journals/novalr17 and id is 757 raw text is: Why Haven't the Crits Deconstructed Footnotes? Arthur D. Austin* A crit is a self-empowered deconstructionist of legal scholarship. Crits brag about freeing the text from the tyranny of the author and then showing how the text embarrasses itself.' Every topic has been deconstructed- torts,2 contracts,3 gender,4 etc.5 You name the topic and a crit has freed it from capitalist imperialism. As a crit once boasted: it's a real-life revenge of the nerds.6 There is, however, a major glitch in the nerds' revenge. They have not deconstructed one of the most influential fields in law-footnoting. How can crit radicals, dedicated to the subversion of legal education and the legal system, ignore footnotes? Every professor knows that it is the adroit use of footnotes that tilts the tenure decision.7 Lawyers are always trying to slide in an extra argument in a footnote at the bottom of a brief while law students are tortured by having to master the Bluebook. Here we have the ideal target for deconstruction and the crits missed it! It's incredible. Are they brain dead from drinking Thunderbird or from the fumes emanating from those Jaguars they wheel? The self-proclaimed best and brightest either do not comprehend, or choose to overlook the fact that a footnote is the best expression of deconstruction. Such a concept has its genesis in the deMan vision which postulates that deconstruction undermines, subverts, transgresses and demystifies the privileged interpretation of a text or a phrase. Privilege is a term of art * Edgar A. Hahn Professor of Jurisprudence, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. © 1993 Arthur D. Austin. I have concluded that the most efficient way to protect the reader and the environment from the footnote plague is to rely on the market system. It is a simple plan: none of the references or citations are printed in the usual location. Instead, a monetary value is printed with each note. This is the value that I have assigned that particular note. Readers may obtain any note, or all the notes, by sending me, in a self-addressed envelope, the appropriate amount of money, indicating the footnote desired. Even Richard Posner has not thought of selling footnotes. 1. This is a cheapo: $.25. 2. Id. (as to price). Only a crit would read, or write, this article. 3. Id. (as to price). Not much better than n.2. 4. Id. (as to price). A lot of good old venom in this piece. 5. Etc is like buying an old trunk at an auction. $.17. 6. I like this quote; citation to the source will cost you $1.00. 7. These are self-cites to my work and therefore go at $2.50. These babies got press in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

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