A Property Law Lesson from The Descendants

Need an excuse to go see a movie? With the Academy Awards coming up this weekend, now could be the perfect time to go watch The Descendants and test your knowledge of law at the same time. The Descendants is said to be one of two films ever made that uses the Rule Against Perpetuities as the major driving force of its plot (the other movie is Body Heat). According to Black’s Law Dictionary, the Rule Against Perpetuities can be defined as the “common-law rule prohibiting a grant of an estate unless the interest must vest, if at all, no later than 21 years (plus a period of gestation to cover a posthumous birth) after the death of some person alive when the interest was created.” The rule was established to limit the amount of time that a title to property did not play an active role in the economy due to lacking a direct owner who could possibly sell the property.

The general consensus from the blogosphere concerning The Descendants and the Rule Against Perpetuities is that the movie actually uses and portrays the term correctly, but no one seems to be absolutely certain. Leonard Link (a blog written by New York Law School Professor Arthur S. Leonard) Rubber Hose, and The Law Street Journal are a few blogs that discuss the film’s relationship to the rule. To know for sure if the movie is being true to the law, you will have to go and see it yourself. If you end up enjoying the Hawaiian scenery or the acting of George Clooney more than the film’s inclusion of a law term, I think it’s safe to say that no one will think any less of you.