The Rule against Perpetuities is the result of a long development through cases, first in England from where it spread to America. The rule and its rationales, and the reasons for its existence today and also for its existence today and also for its reform, can only be understood in the light of legal history. My aim is not to describe or ex-plain that history, but to show the pitiful treatment of the rationale of the Rule in some distinguished modern teaching books intended for first-year law students. I stress ‘distinguished’ because it would be pointless to criticize lesser works: ‘teaching books’ because that is where one should hope to see the reasons for the law clearly set out - as Coke stressed; ‘first-year law students’ for they have the most to learn about law and its workings. The classic statement of the Rule - which has no counterpart in Scots law or in continental legal systems - is by John Chipman Gray: A lawyer drafted a will that misapplied the Rule with the result that property did not reach the intended beneficiaries. They sued, and the Supreme Court of California dismissed the complaint on the ground that the Rule is so complicated that many lawyers make mistakes in applying it. The court declared “it would not be proper to hold that defendant failed to use such skill, prudence, and diligence as lawyers of ordinary skill and capacity commonly exercise.”143 Whether this is the law in other jurisdictions is not significant for us. It is enough that the Supreme Court of a large state could take this stance. The first distinguished treatise that I looked at was Joseph William Singer, Introduction to Property.144 Not one word appears accounting for the history of the Rule, its scope and its continued apparent favor. No interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, no later than twenty-one years after some life in being at the creation of the interest.142 142The Rule against Perpetuities, 4th ed. (1942), p. 191. 143 Lucas v. Hamm364 P. 2d 685 (Cal. 1961) at p. 690. 144 (Gaithersburg, NY 2001), pp. 317 ff.
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