Simpson: An Introduction to the History of the Land Law

A Review of AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE LAND LAW. By A. W. B. Simpson

The Art of Interpretation in Future Interest Cases

Man\u27s quest for an absolute, for a definition of good, for the meaning of justice, carries us back to the beginnings of philosophy. And although these concepts are as elusive as the Questing Beast pursued by King Pellinore in T. H. White\u27s delightful book, The Once and Future King, the history of mankind indicates that the curiosity of thoughtful persons is insatiable and that the search will not end. It continues daily before our eyes-in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, psychology, sociology, economics, philosophy, and other disciplines not the least of which is law. Even Holmes, the supposed skeptic, who rejected absolutes\u27 and who denied the inter-mixture of law and morals, repeatedly affirmed the significance of intellectual achievement and thought it not improbable that man, like the grub that prepares a chamber for the winged thing it has never seen but is to be--that man may have cosmic destinies that he does not understand. Whether or not it is given to us to catch an echo of the infinite, and though we may be denied the barest glimpse of the unknown, it seems a true observation that the cumulative effect of unveiling tiny parts of the inscrutable whole have at last put us on a course toward the stars

Should the Rule Against Perpetuities Discard Its Vest?

From what has preceded it is apparent that none of those who would reform the rule against perpetuities, excepting Professor Simes, has suggested that the rule\u27s application to remoteness of vesting alone requires investigation. Yet there is little doubt that this aspect of the rule has caused as much if not more litigation than those which have been so harshly condemned. Proof of this assertion will not be undertaken, for every property lawyer knows how frequently courts are called upon to determine whether for purposes of the rule an interest is vested or contingent. Professor Simes put it well when he said, I doubt whether any other question in the law of estates has caused so much litigation as the question of the vested or contingent character of the interest. If all the decisions on the matter were laid end to end, I know not how many times around the globe they would extend. One may justifiably doubt the propriety of testing the very validity of future interests in terms of a conceptual distinction the tenuousness of which is attested by the countless decisions involving it. What is more important, if one concludes that the validation of vested interests and the invalidation of contingent interests do not serve the modern objectives of the rule-furtherance of the fluidity of property, freeing property for risk capital purposes and the restriction of dead-hand control of the living-then validity under the rule ought not to depend upon whether an interest is vested or contingent. This portion of this article will constitute an attempt to demonstrate why the rule\u27s concern with the concept of vesting has caused so much litigation and to analyze the concept in terms of its relationship to present-day purposes served by the rule

Should the Rule Against Perpetuities Discard Its Vest?

The venerable rule of property known as the rule against perpetuities has recently been subjected to numerous searching and critical analyses, some of which will presently be discussed. Thus far nothing has been published dealing with, and only Professor Simes has touched upon, what seems to the present writer to be the most serious problem engendered by the common law rule in its commonly accepted form, i.e., the notion that the rule is concerned only with remoteness of vesting. It is the purpose of the present discussion to examine the concept of vesting as related to the rule and to attempt to answer the question posed by the title of this article. To accomplish this objective it will be necessary first to advert to the history and purpose of the rule, to consider the application and consequences of violation of the rule in its present form and whether or not it performs a function in modern jurisprudence, and also to review the major criticisms which have thus far been launched against the rule. No attempt will be made to treat statutory substitutes which take the form of prohibitions against the restraint of the absolute power of alienation ; what follows will be concerned with the common law rule and certain recent modifications of it

Review of Government Documents Librarianship: A Guide for the NEO-Depository Era

Review of Government Documents Librarianship: A Guide for the NEO-Depository Er

A Tale of Two Impostors: SN2002kg and SN1954J in NGC 2403

We describe new results on two supernova impostors in NGC 2403, SN 1954J(V12) and SN 2002kg(V37). For the famous object SN 1954J we combine four critical observations: its current SED, its Halpha emission line profile, the Ca II triplet in absorption in its red spectrum, and the brightness compared to its pre-event state. Together these strongly suggest that the survivor is now a hot supergiant with T ~ 20000 K, a dense wind, substantial circumstellar extinction, and a G-type supergiant companion. The hot star progenitor of V12's giant eruption was likely in the post-red supergiant stage and had already shed a lot of mass. V37 is a classical LBV/S Dor variable. Our photometry and spectra observed during and after its eruption show that its outburst was an apparent transit on the HR Diagram due to enhanced mass loss and the formation of a cooler, dense wind. V37 is an evolved hot supergiant at ~10^6 Lsun with a probable initial mass of 60 -80 Msun.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journa

Possible Recovery of SN 1961V In Hubble Space Telescope Archival Images

SN 1961V in NGC 1058 was originally classified by Fritz Zwicky as a ``Type V'' supernova. However, it has been argued that SN 1961V was not a genuine supernova, but instead the superoutburst of an eta Carinae-like luminous blue variable star. In particular, Filippenko et al. (1995, AJ, 110, 2261) used pre-refurbishment HST WFPC images and the known radio position of SN 1961V to conclude that the star survived the eruption and is likely coincident with a V \~ 25.6 mag, V-I ~ 1.9 mag object. Recently, Stockdale et al. (2001, AJ, 122, 283) recovered the fading SN 1961V at radio wavelengths and argue that its behavior is similar that of some Type II supernovae. We have analyzed post-refurbishment archival HST WFPC2 data and find that the new radio position is still consistent with the Filippenko et al. object, which has not changed in brightness or color, but is also consistent with an adjacent, fainter (I ~ 24.3 mag) and very red (V-I > 1.0 mag) object. We suggest that this fainter object could be the survivor of SN 1961V. Forthcoming HST observations may settle this issue.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, to appear in the PASP (2002 July issue