Fifty-One Flowers: Post-Perpetuities War Law and Arkansas\u27 Adoption of USRP

This article traces the Rules Against Perpetuities\u27 history, from its creation until the present, and discusses the reasons both for its existence and its decline, along with the rise of perpetual trusts. The article also provides the current status of the Rule in the states, which has continued to evolve. Part III of this article explains how the common law Rule works, and it discusses pre-Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities (USRAP) perpetuities law in Arkansas. Arkansas\u27s constitution forbids perpetuities. The Arkansas Supreme Court has interpreted this constitutional provision to mean that the common law Rule is law in Arkansas. Nonetheless, six out of eight states with similar constitutional provisions have enacted USRAP. Thus, the fourth and fifth parts of the article discuss USRAP and the effect that its enactment will have on Arkansas law. Appendix A sets out the text of USRAP. Appendix B includes a state-by-state summary of current perpetuities law. Appendix C is a subject index of the examples illustrating how USRAP works