The theoretical generalization that no lexical material can occur between a Wh-element and a verb in any clause in Basque is challenged, and it is argued that case is not assigned structurally in the Basque language. The account demonstrates how a number of well documented properties of Basque may combine to produce this grammatical result, and an attempt to capture the significance of several specific syntactic relationships (e.g., theta-role discharging, case assignment, and focalization) for the proper definition of barriers is presented. (MSE)