The Rule Against Perpetuities

Out of Print

The Rule against Perpetuities is aimed at the control of future interests in property, especially real property. The author asserts that it would be better to call it the Rule against Remoteness.

This extensive treatise deals with the entirety of the subject, including its history as a doctrine which derived from feudal law, its relations to other parts of the law, and the general principles as they evolved.

This extensive treatise elaborates on the legal doctrine governing the creation of future interests in property, especially real property. Doctrines derived from feudal law have all but disappeared through actions of the courts and legislatures, and the law of future interests has been simplified and reduced to the Rule Against Perpetuities. Nevertheless, it is one of the most complicated parts of estate planning, as it can limit the amount of time that property can be controlled after death by a person's instructions in a will.

John Chipman Gray, 1839-1915, was an American lawyer and law professor. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1861, served in the Civil War and then entered into the practice of law in Boston. In 1869, he began teaching at Harvard Law School and he continued both practice and teaching until the last years of his life. He was a leading advocate of the case system of teaching law and was a recognized authority both in the United States and England on the law of real property.