Body Heat

[webofevil]

From the Second Reading of the Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill:

Baroness Deech: My one claim to fame is that I used to lecture on [perpetuities and accumulations]; I did so for 20 years at Oxford. In a course of eight one-hour lectures we did no more than merely scrape the surface of the subject, and at the end of those eight hours I used to forget it until the following year came around... I doubt whether this subject is widely taught or known, and I suspect—indeed, this has been said quite authoritatively in other common-law jurisdictions—that wills are drawn up by lawyers in complete ignorance and carried out in the same way. There is an American film called “Body Heat”, starring Kathleen Turner, where the entire plot turns on the failure to notice the application of the rule against perpetuities in a will, although I suspect that I was the only person in the audience to have been overcome with excitement at that point.

Comments

[mrslant]

I doubt whether this subject is widely taught or known

Well it's reasonably well-known to actual practising lawyers, m'lady...

wills are drawn up by lawyers in complete ignorance and carried out in the same way

This from the Chair of the Bar Standards Board! I think she meant to specify "solicitors" there. :-)