State Constitutions: An Argument Against the Abolition of Perpetuities Law

John V. Orth (professor of law, University of North Carolina) has recently published his article entitled Allowing Perpetuities in North Carolina, 31 Campbell L. Rev. 399 (2009). 

The first two paragraphs of the article are below:

As one state after another acts to make perpetual trusts possible, a little-noticed provision in some state constitutions forbidding “perpetuities” is receiving new attention. The first such provision–originally in North Carolina’s 1776 Constitution and later copied by other states–is now the subject of litigation that will determine the constitutionality of the state’s recent repeal of the Rule Against Perpetuities as applied to beneficial interests in trust. The case, Brown Brothers Harriman Trust Co. v. Benson, seems set to become a landmark that could be influential as other states with similar constitutional provisions respond to the demand for allowing perpetual trusts.

Perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free state and shall not be allowed.