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SETTLEMENT
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SETTLEMENT , in See also:law, a mutual arrangement between living persons for regulating the enjoyment of See also:property, and the See also:instrument by which such enjoyment is regulated. Settlements may be either for valuable See also:consideration or not: the latter are usually called voluntary, and are in law to some extent in the same position as revocable gifts; the former are really contracts, and in See also:general their validity depends upon the law of See also:contract. They may accordingly contain any provisions not contrary to law or public policy.' The elements of the See also:modern settlement are to be found in See also:Roman law. The vulgaris, pupillaris or exemplaris substitutio (consisting in the See also:appointment of successive heirs in See also:case of the ' In this See also:English law allows greater freedom than See also:French. Fy § 791 of the See also:Code See also:Napoleon, in a contract of See also:marriage the See also:succession to a living. See also:person cannot be renounced. II See also:death, incapacity or refusal of the See also:heir first nominated) may have suggested the modern mode of giving enjoyment of property in succession. Such a substitutio could, however, only have been made by will, while the settlement of English law is, in the general acceptation of the See also:term, exclusively an instrument inter vivos. The dos or donatio propter nuptias corresponds to a considerable extent with the marriage settlement, the instrument itself being represented by the dotale instrumentum or pacta dotalia. In the earliest See also:period of Roman law no See also:provision for the wife was required, for she passed under manus of her See also:husband, and became in law his daughter, entitled as such to a See also:share of his property at his death. In course of See also:time the plebeian See also:form of marriage by usus, according to which the wife did not become subject to manus, gradually superseded the older form, and it became necessary to make a provision for the wife by contract. Such provision from the wife's See also:side was made by the dos, the property contributed by the wife or some one on her behalf towards the expenses of the new See also:household. Dos might be given before or after marriage, or might be increased after marriage. It was a See also:duty enforced by legislation to provide dos where the See also:father possessed a sufficient See also:fortune. Dos was of three kinds: profectitia, contributed by the father or other ascendant on the male side; adventitia, by the wife herself or any person other than those who contributed dos profectitia; receptitia, by any person who contributed dos adventitia, subject to the stipulation that the property was to be returned to the person advancing it on See also:dissolution of the marriage. The position of the husband gradually changed for the worse. From being owner, subject to an See also:obligation to return the dos if the wife predeceased him, he became a trustee of the corpus of the property for the wife's See also:family, retaining only the enjoyment of the income as See also:long as the marriage continued. The contribution by the husband was called donatio propter nuptias.l The most striking point of difference between the Roman and the English law is that under the former the See also:children took no See also:interest in the contributions made by the parents. Other modes of settling property in Roman law were the See also:life interest or usus, the fideicommissum, and the See also:prohibition of See also:alienation of a legatum.
The See also:oldest form of settlement in See also:England was perhaps the See also:gift in frankmarriage to the donees in frankmarriage, and the heirs between them two begotten (See also:Littleton, § 17). This was simply a form of gift in See also:special tail, which became up to the reign of See also:Queen See also: Bridgeman in the 17th See also:century, the See also:object being to preserve the estate from See also:forfeiture for See also:treason during the See also:Commonwealth.' The settlement of chattels is no doubt of considerably later origin, and the principles were adopted by courts of See also:equity from the corresponding law as to real estate. Settlement in English law is, so far as regards real property, used for two inconsistent purposes—to " make an eldest son," as it is called, and to avoid the results of the right of succession to real property of the eldest son by making provision for the younger children. The first result is generally obtained by a strict settlement, the latter by a marriage settlement, which is for valuable consideration if ante-nuptial, voluntary if See also:post-nuptial. But these two kinds of settlement are not mutually exclusive: a marriage settlement may often take the form of a strict settlement and be in substance a resettlement of the family estate. (See See also:CONVEYANCING.) In See also:Scotland a disposition and settlement is a mode of providing for the See also:devolution of property after death, and so corresponds "See See also:Hunter, Roman Law, p. 150; See also:Maine, See also:Early See also:History of Institutions, Lect. xi. ' The appointment of such trustees was rendered unnecessary by acts of 1845 and 1877. See See also:Joshua See also:Williams, Papers of the Juridical Society, i. 45.rather to the English will than to the English settlement. The English marriage settlement is represented in Scotland by the contract of marriage, which may be ante- or post-nuptial. In the See also:United States settlements other than marriage settlements are practically unknown. Marriage settlements are not in See also:common use, owing to the fact that most states long ago adopted the principles of the English Married See also:Women's Property Acts. The word " settlement " is also used to denote such See also:residence of a person in a See also:parish, or other circumstances pertaining thereto, as would entitle him to obtain poor See also:relief (see See also:Pool& Law). On the English Stock See also:Exchange it is a term for the See also:series of operations by which bargains are concluded,. or carried over (see See also:ACCOUNT and STOCK ExcHANG&). The word is also applied generally to the termination of a disputed See also:matter by the See also:adoption of terms. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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