Paradox of Self-Amendment by Peter Suber the permission of what was once prohibited (see Section 12.C), then clearly the new and old ACs could declare different periods of effectiveness without thereby overcoming their inconsistency. If they are inconsistent, then the inference that models the adoption of the new from the old will be invalid, and the formalist model cannot permit it. The old AC is still being asked to authorize a norm inconsistent with itself. What Ross calls the incorporation of the lex posterior principle may also be called the implied limitation on the AC that it is valid only until amended. As noted in Section 8.C, such a "limitation" does not diminish the amending power in any way, at least not while the AC is still valid. What it does do is insure that the old and new ACs never overlap in time, which might be desirable if one could not rely on the courts to apply the lex posterior principle exogenously. A strong argument could be made that any AC is impliedly valid only until amended, notwithstanding the Kelsenian super-entrenchment of ACs noted in Section 9.D. This is especially so if "valid only until amended" means that an AC in its current form binds only in that form until it is changed to another form. This is nearly a tautology, but not quite: if self-amendment is permitted, it is even closer to tautology, and only becomes a tautology if irrevocable self-amendment is permitted. If an AC has self-embracing omnipotence, then it may limit or repeal itself irrevocably, and therefore invalidate itself. If it has continuing omnipotence, then all self-limitations are revocable; but while they last they genuinely change the AC and bind in another form, even if they cannot totally change the AC. Moreover, the very immutability of the continuing character of continuing omnipotence shows that, if it could be changed irrevocably, then its original form would be invalidated. Because the "valid until amended" limitation is simply the incorporation of the lex posterior principle, it therefore cannot be read into an entrenchment or self-entrenchment clause, insofar as the latter are temporally symmetrical correlates of implied repeal and the lex posterior principle (Section 9.D). If "valid until amended" means that newer rules impliedly repeal all inconsistent older rules on their own hierarchical level, pro tanto or to the extent of their irreconcilable conflict, and if entrenchment is the reversal of this rule of priority, allowing the existing rule to repeal the newcomer pro tanto, then entrenchment clauses, taken at face value, reverse and do not incorporate the lex posterior principle. If they are mutable and repealable, then it is by special effort, not by the sort of change so routine that its permissibility may automatically or presumptively be read into them. In one of the few general studies of the logic of rules, Joan Safran Ganz concluded that one of the recurrent features of rules is that they have been adopted and "remain in force until unadopted".[Note 6] As noted in Section 9.D, the Rhode Island constitution is the only one in the nation that says of itself that it is valid until amended: a clause entrenching the right to alter or abolish government adds that "the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all" (emphases added). Most states are content to presume that their constitutions are valid only "till amended". But Rhode Island is the only state to endure the upheaval of a revolution in which insurgents with strong popular support set up a constitution and government in opposition to the incumbent. After its bitter experience in which the Supreme Court refused to decide which was the legitimate government of the state, and in which President Tyler supported the incumbent with national troops, Rhode Island was understandably careful in its subsequent constitutional convention to assert both the lex posterior principle (to satisfy the insurgents) and a rough test of revolutionary legality (to satisfy the incumbents).[Note 7] With the memories of the new nation's revolution still bright in his mind, Alexander Hamilton wrote in similar vein in Federalist #78. The most basic laws are mutable, but only by the forms and procedures the people have imposed upon themselves in their constitution. Until the people have, by some solemn and authoritative act, annulled or changed the established form, it is binding upon themselves collectively, as well as individually; and no presumption, or even knowledge of their sentiments, can warrant their representatives in a departure from it prior to such an act. This is a strong statement of the "self-entrenched" character of all law, which requires that its own forms be followed. But for the same reason it is a strong statement of the principle that law binds until changed —in some way the opposite principle. Hamilton is asserting the balance between stable old law that demands respect, and the rights of new law to take over when solemn formalities have indicated consent. It is strange and wonderful that this play of opposites should sound nearly tautologous to our ears. It is no accident that this balanced view is made explicit in the turmoil and long memories following revolution, and set up as a warning. It is important at those moments to reassert the unexceptionable rule of law, but equally important to reassert the mutability of law. C. The procedural model Under the procedural and acceptance models the paradox need never arise, either because the new AC is validated directly by acceptance, not by the old AC, or because the contradiction between the new and old ACs is tolerable under the procedural and acceptance models. No effort need be made, theoretically or practically, to insure that the new and old ACs are never in effect at the same time, for any overlap and contradiction may be excused or ignored. We can distinguish several theories of the source of the validity of a newly changed AC. With Ross, the source of legal validity may be the logical validity of a certain inference from a prior, higher rule of change. With Hart, it may be the acceptance of the people and the usage of officials, or conformity to a rule of recognition that traces its own authority to acceptance. These are the inference and acceptance models of authority and validity. 76