Preface to Estates in Land & Future Interests, 1984 (University Textbook Series)

Rating:
Summary: If you're only gonna read one future interests book this yr
Review: I've decided to review this book because it was one of my favorite books in law school and no one else is ever going to write a review here.

PTELAFI -- as I like to call it, is a very "wet" book on what is usually considered a very "dry" topic. Sure, feudal enfoeffments are not everyone's cup of tea. BUT if you ever wanted to understand that tax avoidance was invented long before checking accounts, or, just as important, why all the girls in Austen and Bronte were always trying to marry their cousin in order to keep living in the house in which they grew up... then this is the book for you.

Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but "future interests" (basically dealing with how real property rights were held and cut up in the early part of the last millenium) is kind of like a fun big puzzle, isn't really that hard once you get the hang of it, as the writers of this charming little hornbook seem to understand, kind of fun when approached from the correct angle.

This was also one of the clearest (and shortest) books I was assigned in law school.

So bravo to Messrs. Bergin and Haskell.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Writers who happens to be a Lawyer
Review: Tom Bergin, who is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia School of Law (not North Carolina as stated above - *gasp*) and his writing partner Paul Haskell, have produced what may be the only entertaining read in the history of real estate law. Bergin, a lawyer, academic, teacher, former minor league baseball player, lets his unabashed enthusiasm for puzzling over legal issues and taking them apart come through in this short but very useful book. If you are a first year law student, or someone interested in a unique, intellectually challenging book that will give you insights into the fast departing "art" of the law, buy this book!