ABSTRACT

Blackstone's defense of the rule came as no surprise. In his lectures on the common law he had emphatically adopted Sir Edward Coke's position that the common law, as it was, was 'the perfection of reason'. As an unintended consequence of Mansfield's attempt to eliminate it, the Rule in Shelley's Case emerged with a renewed lease on life. The reason which gave rise to the rule has been forgotten, and ingenious minds set themselves to inquire how it is to be accounted for. Sometimes American judges had to work hard to keep the Rule. The modern tax code is more than sufficient for that purpose. The Rule vests in A the remainder in fee simple that is apparently granted to A's heirs, which then merges, since there is no intervening vested interest with A's life estate to produce a present possessory fee simple. The initiative in law reform was now passing, however haltingly, to the legislature.