I think you can remove it.  shindig.contextroot gets set in org.apache.shindig.common.servlet.GuiceServletContextListener.setSystemProperties(ServletContext).  It uses [ServletContext.getContextPath](http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/6/api/javax/servlet/ServletContext.html#getContextPath%28%29) to get the context and its documentation says "For servlets in the default (root) context, this method returns """.  So I don't think you ever have to worry about it being null.