Rule
against perpetuities
The
rule against perpetuities is a legal
rule in
common law
property law that
states that prohibiting the grant of an
estate
unless the future interest granting that such estate vests within 21 years after
the death of someone alive when the interest was created (lives in being plus
twenty one years).
Quote
- The common
law Rule Against Perpetuities (modified by statute in some states) provides that
no interest is valid unless it must vest within 21 years after lives in being
when the interest was created. The rule is something of a misnomer. It does not
limit the duration of a condition of a bequest, but rather limits the testator's
power to earmark gifts for remote descendants.
—
Richard Posner
Economic Analysis of the Law 2nd ed. (1977), sec. 18.7 at page 394.
