Review of Reviews: “Unconstitutional Perpetual Trusts,” 67 Vand. L. Rev. 1769 (2014)Review of Reviews: “Unconstitutional Perpetual Trusts,” 67 Vand. L. Rev. 1769 (2014)

Rarely has a trusts and estates law review article generated such discussion, some might say fuss, as has the recent “Unconstitutional Perpetual Trusts,” written by the above authors. They wrote the article in connection with the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel Foundation sponsored symposium, “The Role of Federal Law in Private Wealth Transfer,”  hosted by the Vanderbilt University School of Law in February 2014, but the discussion began after a New York Times article in December 2014 summarized the article and extended its conclusions in ways guaranteed to excite readers.

Much of the article is uncontroversial. The authors distill five centuries of law into an excellent 8-page review of the rule against perpetuities (RAP) fr...