LEGISLATION-PERPETUITIES-SOME RECENT STATUTORY CHANGES IN THE LAW OF PERPETUITIES

Authors

Thomas L. Waterbury S.Ed., University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

During the past five years the legislatures of several states have wrestled anew with an old problem, that of limiting the permissible duration of indirect restraints upon the alienation of property. Generally speaking, these statutes may be grouped into two classes: those designed to abandon previous statutory modifications of the common law rule against perpetuities and return to the common law rule; and those designed to modify the common law rule or alter existing statutory rules. With respect to the latter group, a further classification is possible between statutes which attempt a general revision of the law as to perpetuities and those which are aimed at narrow and specific problems. This comment will undertake an examination of these statutes for the purposes of determining the legislative objectives, the extent to which the statutes are likely to attain those objectives, and, to a limited extent, the desirability of those objectives. Particular attention will be given to two statutes: the 1949 Michigan statute, designed to return to the common law rule against perpetuities with respect to interests in land and chattels real, and the 1947 Pennsylvania statute which attempts a general revision of the common law rule.

Recommended Citation

Thomas L. Waterbury S.Ed., LEGISLATION-PERPETUITIES-SOME RECENT STATUTORY CHANGES IN THE LAW OF PERPETUITIES, 48 Mich. L. Rev. 1158 (1950).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol48/iss8/9