Without limiting the generality of the foregoing

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Towards more picturesque speech


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A tedious articulation of a pointless contrivance: the “without limitation” clause.

See, you don’t need to say “without limiting the generality of the foregoing...”, because you can just say “without limitation”, and you don’t need to say “without limitation...” because it carries no semantic content whatsoever. Unless you have stated a limitation, one will not be implied, either as a matter of basic linguistic construction or, for that matter, common law.

If you have stated a limitation, then what the hell are you doing writing “without limitation”?

Why are the best-paid professional writers in the world such ham-hocked users of their own language?

See also