Paradox of Self-Amendment by Peter Suber from any magical propensities of law and theology to absorb and forgive contradiction. Therefore, the question is whether continuing and self- embracing omnipotence can each, when considered separately and without equivocation, give rise to the paradox of self-amendment. 1. If the AC is thought to have continuing omnipotence, then irrevocable self-limitation and self-repeal (but not revocable self-limitation or non-limiting self-amendment) are precluded as ultra vires. However, self-amendment that does not limit either the omnipotence or the continuing character of the omnipotence of the AC would still be possible. We must ask whether such self-amendment can give us a new, amended AC that is inconsistent with the present AC; if so, then under the inference model the paradox will still arise. The answer to the question is yes, if by "inconsistent" we mean that the new AC permits what was impermissible under the old AC, or prohibits what it permitted (see Section 12.C). For example, self-amendment by the addition of a new, complete method of amendment (say, by popular referendum) would not limit the continuing omnipotence of the old AC, yet is "inconsistent" with the old AC for permitting what was once impermissible. In such cases the paradox of self-amendment would still arise under the inference model. In the inference that models that act of amendment, the conclusion (new AC) would still contradict a premise (the old AC). Therefore, if the old AC is univocally considered to have continuing omnipotence, then the paradox is not routed or dissolved. 2. If the old AC is considered to have self-embracing omnipotence, then the paradox is not routed either, although this is more difficult to show. Indeed, self-embracing omnipotence seems by definition able to perform any self-amendment whatsoever without self- contradiction. But we should beware of solving this problem by appeal to a kind of power that is simply defined as able to solve the problem. It turns out that, while self-embracing omnipotence authorizes all self-amendments, it cannot prevent contradiction. That is, we should not hastily infer that what is authorized is thereby freed from contradiction, for we can always posit an authority for bizarre acts or rules. One of the acts authorized by self-embracing omnipotence, apparently, is irrevocable self-limitation. We may be more specific: one act authorized by it is (to use Ross's language) the derivation of norms inconsistent with the source. If this is really a self- contradiction (Sections 5, 10), then self-embracing omnipotence does not remove the contradiction but only "authorizes" it or makes it somehow legitimate, or even acceptable. But if, on the other hand, the authority provided by self-embracing omnipotence is enough to solve the paradox or to remove the inconsistency of what is authorized, then it turns out that self-embracing omnipotence is really the power to override the principle of non-contradiction. Even if we say that it is, we don't understand it any better for defining it that way; instead we impute it, in all its mystery, to selected sovereigns and deities to absolve their contradictions. It is a way of using words to avert our eyes. One of the defining characteristics of self-embracing omnipotence is the power to limit itself irrevocably. By contrast, continuing omnipotence can only limit itself revocably. The power of self-embracing omnipotence, so long as it is self-embracing omnipotence, is unlimited but limitable. Any self-amendment that immutably limits self-embracing omnipotence is inconsistent with its source, in the sense that it forbids what was once permissible. The inference model cannot tolerate such self-amendment, nor can formal logic generally. So long as our test of inconsistency is whether the new AC forbids what the old AC permitted, or permits what the old AC forbade, then self-embracing omnipotence will be unable to escape self-contradiction in self-amendments that limit it immutably. One might object that no amendment is inconsistent with the AC that authorized it if it is really authorized; immutable self-limitation is concededly authorized by self-embracing omnipotence, and therefore is consistent with it. This objection confuses the vice of inconsistency with the vice of proceeding ultra vires (beyond authority). If a rule specifically authorized the derivation of norms inconsistent with itself, regardless how we define "inconsistent", then the new norms could actually be inconsistent with the source despite the authorization. Authorization does not remove inconsistency even if it legitimates it. Even for Alf Ross what purports to authorize inconsistency is ipso facto not a valid legal authority. For those who do not hold the inference model, the principle is even clearer: one of the differences between law and logic is that laws may violate logical rules and still be valid laws, even if they are for that reason "bad" laws that should be amended or repealed. Self-embracing omnipotence is not even a law, but merely an hypothetical concept of omnipotence that is experimentally ascribed to an AC. But even if an AC clearly possessed self- embracing omnipotence, it would merely authorize amendments inconsistent with itself, not eliminate the inconsistency from all authorized amendments. Because "inconsistency" may be defined in any way whatsoever and still not be overcome by specific authorization,[Note 3] this conclusion does not depend upon the particular test of inconsistency that I have used (to forbid what was once permitted or to permit what was once forbidden). Other criteria of inconsistency for normative propositions will be examined in Section 12.C. But whichever we pick, a rule of law, valid by all legal tests, could permit the derivation from itself of norms "inconsistent" with itself by the chosen criterion. This is a flat denial of Ross's most fundamental premise, that forbids all rules of all kinds from permitting the valid derivation from themselves of norms inconsistent with themselves. While Ross's principle is obviously imported from logic, not native to law, and imposed on law as if with a priori title, my counter-proposition is derived from the empirical experience of law of the sort highlighted by the procedural model of legal change, in which procedures often permit outcomes inconsistent with their antecedent authorities. In Hart's version of the Hart-Mackie thesis, self-embracing omnipotence could be valid law even if it were concededly self-contradictory. In that sense Hart has actually dissolved the paradox with his distinction between continuing and self-embracing omnipotence. But his distinction does not eliminate the inconsistency of self-amendments that would be legally permissible for both species of amendments, and in that sense has failed to dissolve the paradox for the inference model or formal logic generally. 83