SETTLEMENT, in law, a mutual arrangement between liv ing persons for regulating the enjoyment of property, and the in strument by which such enjoyment is regulated. Settlements may be either for valuable consideration or not. The latter are usually called voluntary, the former are really contracts, and in general their validity depends upon the law of contract governing in such cases.
The elements of the modern settlement are to be found in Roman law. Substitutio (consisting in the appointment of suc cessive heirs in case of the death, incapacity or refusal of the heir first nominated) may have suggested the modern mode of giving enjoyment of property in succession. Such a substitutio could only have been made by will, while its relation, usufruct.
could be made also inter vivos, like the settlement of English The dos or donatio propter nuptias corresponds to some extent with the marriage settlement. Other modes of settling property in Roman law were the life interest or uses, the fidei-commissum and the prohibition of alienation of a legatum. The most strik ing point of difference between the Roman and the English law is that under the former the children took no interest in the con tributions made by the parents.
The oldest form of settlement in England was perhaps the gift in frankmarriage to the donees in frankmarriage and the heirs between them two begotten (Littleton, s. This was simply a form of gift in special tail, which became up to the reign of Queen Elizabeth the most usual kind of settlement. The time at which the modern form of settlement of real estate came into use seems doubtful. The plan of granting the freehold to trus tees to preserve contingent remainders is said to have been in vented by Lord Keeper Sir 0. Bridgeman in the 17th century, the object being to preserve the estate from forfeiture for treason during the Commonwealth. The appointment of such trustees
was rendered unnecessary by acts of 1845 and 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 val uable consideration if ante-nuptial, voluntary if post-nuptial. But these two kinds of settlement are not mutually exclusive : a mar riage settlement may often take the form of a strict settlement and be in substance a resettlement of the family estate. (See ENTAIL; JOINTURE; TRUSTS and TRUSTEES.) In Scotland a disposition and settlement is a mode of providing for the devolution of property after death, and so corresponds rather to the English will than to the English settlement. The Eng lish marriage settlement is represented in Scotland by the contract of marriage, which may be ante- or post-nuptial.
In the United States, settlements other than marriage settle ments are almost unknown. These usually take the form of an ante-nuptial contract, entered into prior to the marriage, in which the parties waive any dower or other rights to the estates of the other to which they might be entitled under the law. Occasionally, married couples enter into agreements to waive their claims to each other's estates. Marriage settlements are not in common use, owing to the fact that most states long ago adopted the principles of the English Married Women's Property Acts.