Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

De Donis Conditionalibus

An English statute, enacted in 1285, that gave rise to the ability to create a fee tail. - Often shortened to De Donis "[Alfter De Donis, the formula 'to A and the heirs of his body' gave to A an estate known as an estate in fee tail. Because A had no power to transfer an estate in fee simple absolute, it became theoretically possible for persons like O to tie up the ownership of land in a single family for hundreds of years. We say theoretically possible because by 1472 a way would be found for the tenant in tail (as A was called) to transfer an estate in fee simple absolute despite De Donis." Thomas F. Bergin & Paul G. Haskell, Preface to Estates in Land and Future Interests 29 (2d ed. 1984).