It’s about 9:00 p.m. on July 4. New York City’s annual fireworks display is slated to start in about 30 minutes. Here in Harlem, the sounds of bottle rockets began about 30 minutes ago.
I’m at my desk, trying to memorize the Rule in Shelley’s Case, which, funny enough, is a doctrine that we Americans inherited, like much of our law, from England. The rule, which has been abolished in most states, prevents a landowner from creating a so-called remainder in his heirs. (One who is alive, by definition, has no heirs.)
The rule seems to have originated as an estate-planning tool. It allowed landowners to convey land to their children through property law instead of by inheritance, thereby circumventing taxes owed to the British monarchy.