Incluso

This article comes to you from the Jolly Contrarian’s legal maxim generation service.

The incluso is the opposite of a proviso.

A proviso may be a ginger, lilly-livered construction, but at least it does something: it takes a stated general principle and weasels out of it.

The promisor herewith agrees to pay, inconditionally and in full, all amounts due, provided that on no account shall the promisor be liable for: ... [here follows a catalogue of exceptions great and small the sum total of which will equal, or perhaps even exceed, the value of the commitment so generously given].

An incluso states the general principle, and then illustratively repeats it, bearing useful confirmation only to those afflicted by profound ontological uncertainty as to whether you meant what you said in the first place.

We will send such confirmations and information in such form (including paper, writing, parchment, scrolls, hand-signals, facial tics, morse code, semaphore, maritime signaling systems or other symbolic language (whether or not depending for their efficacy upon the assistance and/or configuration of flags) as we shall determine from time to time.

A well crafted incluso will drag into contemplation items which no ordinary reading of the general principle could possibly have anticipated.

The sign of a true legal master is the provuso, which is an amalgam of a proviso and an incluso, a device by which one states a general principle, then caveats it so comprehensively that the end result bears no correlation at all with the originally intended. This is a way of weaseling into a whole new obligation that neither party possibly could have had in mind when discussing the original trade.

If you were a weasel playing Defender, this would be like hitting the hyperspace button.

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