Efficient language hypothesis

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A bedfellow to the more famous efficient market hypothesis, the JC’s efficient language hypothesis states that the universally acknowledged advantages in efficiency, clarity, brevity and productivity offered by simple, clear and plain legal drafting are so compelling that sustained prolixity is impossible in commercial contracts, and all bilateral accords will eventually resolve themselves to, at most, terse bullet points rendered on a cocktail napkin, and ideally some kind of mark-up language or machine code. This, the JC goes on to conclude, must mean that the commercial world we appear to live in is just a bad dream..

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