Template:Without limitation and ejusdem generis

Without limitation and ejusdem generis

Recently spotted: specifically carving out ejusdem generis as an articulation of the without limitation trope:

“including (without limitation or application of the ejusdem generis rule) data (including [ ... and here follows a long and tedious catalogue of the various forms that data can take concluding with cat memes, GIFs and any and all other information, howsoever described], inasmuch and insofar as it relates to the Discloser.”

This, of all places, in that most saintedly over-vexed of all agreements, a confidentiality agreement.

This, readers, is legal eaglery taken to an extraordinary, self-contradictory lengths. This is the legal eagle as farmer, cack-handedly counting her sheep. For what is the purpose of a laundry list of specifics in the first place, if not to somehow craft, contextualise or otherwise put some meaningful boundaries on a vague and indeterminate general expression which you fear might otherwise have impossibly wide application? If all you want is to capture “all information”, just say “all information”, and be done with it: don’t trouble your counterparty with both a laundry list which Q.E.D., is patently redundant and an ejusdem generis carve-out, which underscores that fact.