ALI Publishes Final Volume of the Restatement (Third) of Property: Wills and Other Donative Transfers; Professor Langbein Co-Author

The American Law Institute has published the third and final volume of its “Restatement (Third) of Property: Wills and Other Donative Transfers.”  The publication completes a 20-year project to update the law of wills and succession. Yale Law School Professor John H. Langbein drafted the Restatement, along with Professor Lawrence W. Waggoner of the University of Michigan Law School. The 757-page volume provides a comprehensive and detailed account of the rules governing class gifts, powers of appointment, future interests, and perpetuities. Highlights include:

• provisions modernizing and simplifying the law of future interests,

• class-gift rules that respond to the legal problems arising from recent scientific breakthroughs in reproductive technology,

• a comprehensive treatment of the rules governing powers of appointment,

• a simplified formulation of the rule against perpetuities, and

• a strongly principled explanation of the reasons for limiting dead-hand control of property.

Earlier volumes of this Restatement were published in 1999 and 2003. Volume 1 addresses the law of probate transfers through wills and intestacy. Volume 2 discusses nonprobate transfers, protective doctrines, and donor intent. The Restatement provides unified treatment of probate and nonprobate transfers, including the construction, reformation, and modification of wills and other donative documents.

Read the entire ALI press release here.

The American Law Institute is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law.