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Full-Text Articles in Law
Perpetuities And The Genius Of A Free State, Joshua C. Tate
Perpetuities And The Genius Of A Free State, Joshua C. Tate
Vanderbilt Law Review
Legal history, like all history, is inevitably a speculative affair. No one can be sure what the editors of Justinian's Digest might have excised from long-lost works of classical Roman law; nor can one know for certain what went through the minds of certain justices of the U.S. Supreme Court in the mid-twentieth century when they formed and reformed their views on Roosevelt's New Deal. Of course, scholars can try to chip away at this uncertainty: great progress can be made through educated guesses and learned theories. But certainty about the past is reserved for those who lived in it. …
Unconstitutional Perpetual Trusts, Steven J. Horowitz, Robert H. Sitkoff
Unconstitutional Perpetual Trusts, Steven J. Horowitz, Robert H. Sitkoff
Vanderbilt Law Review
"I never can be thankful, Mr. Bennet, for any thing about the entail."t Perpetual trusts are an established feature of today's estate planning firmament. Yet little-noticed provisions in the constitutions of nine states, including in five states that purport to allow perpetual trusts by statute, proscribe ')erpetuities." This Article examines those provisions in light of the meaning of ')erpetuity" as a legal term of art across history. We consider the constitutionality of perpetual trust statutes in states that have a constitutional ban on perpetuities and whether courts in states with such a ban may give effect to a perpetual trust …
Perpetuities, Restraints On Alienability,And The Duration Of Trusts, Ralph A. Newman
Perpetuities, Restraints On Alienability,And The Duration Of Trusts, Ralph A. Newman
Vanderbilt Law Review
There is no doubt that we must have some fairly well-defined standard for determining when a restraint on alienation lasts too long. There is need for only one rule directed to the ultimate objective sought the establishment of a limitation upon the period during which alienability may be postponed. This limitation of the period of permissible duration of the state of inalienability must apply to all interests of any kind, present or future, vested or contingent, legal or equitable, absolute or in trust. The test of suspension should be the practical possibility, as well as the legal possibility, of alienation. …