Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1990
Abstract
Redundancy has a bad reputation among legal intellectuals. When someone says, for example, that the ninth and tenth amendments are redundant, we can be pretty sure that this person attaches little importance to these constitutional provisions. Listen to one of the definitions of redundant provided by the Oxford English Dictionary: "superabundant, superfluous, excessive."' In this essay, the author proposes that legal theorists pay serious attention to the concept of redundancy used by engineers. He explains how redundancy--in this special sense--is essential to any intellectual enterprise in which we try to reach action-guiding conclusions, including the enterprise of law. The author describes the virtues of redundancy in legal thought.
Publication Citation
38 Clev. St. L. Rev. 153-168 (1990)
Scholarly Commons Citation
Barnett, Randy E., "The Virtues of Redundancy in Legal Thought" (1990). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 1264.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1264