The Law
Under the traditional American common law doctrine, the 99-year term was not literal, but merely an arbitrary time span beyond the life expectancy of any possible lessee or lessor.
In the law of several US states, a 99-year lease will always be the longest possible contract for realty by statute, but many have enacted shorter terms and some allow infinite terms.
The 99-year lease concept has been more common under the civil law regimes when it comes to concessions of territory: most concessions last for 99 years.
Read more about this topic: 99-year Lease
Famous quotes containing the word law:
“You can no more bridle passions with logic than you can justify them in the law courts. Passions are facts and not dogmas.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)