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Script tags CAN NOT be empty. http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/direct.html.en will correctly complain about the missing </script> tag.
Unless I am mistaken, and assuming that you are talking about XHTML1: * there is nothing in the XHTML 1 grammar prohibiting this construct * the only relevant part of the XHTML1 specification is the informative appendix C3 - http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#C_3 * the appendix C is only relevant in some cases (xhtml 1 served as text/html), and has nothing to do with validation. * there is an appendix C checker in the works, which will warn users of XHTML 1 served as text/html of such potential problems with legacy user agents. Hence, closing this bug as "not a bug in the validator". If my assessment is incorrect, feel free to clarify your report with actual details, a pointer to a test document, and references as to why you think this should be a validation error. Thank you.