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A Uniform Perpetuities Reform Act, Scott A. Shepard

Scott A. Shepard

For centuries the Rule Against Perpetuities provided protection against a pair of dangers: that important stocks of property would become, effectively, permanently inalienable as a result of perpetual conditional gifts; and that the dead would be permitted to control the destinies of the living by placing permanent conditions on the fixed stock of available wealth (i.e., land wealth). In recent decades, though, the states have increasingly abandoned the Rule and its protections. As of 2011 all states have migrated beyond the traditional “21-years-plus-life-in-being” Rule, and more than half have actually or effectively abolished their Rules, at least insofar as applied …