Blackacre

Property law

Part of the common law series

Acquisition

Gift · Adverse possession · Deed Conquest · Discovery · Accession Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property Treasure trove  · Bailment · License Alienation

Estates in land

Allodial title · Fee simple · Fee tail Life estate · Defeasible estate Future interest · Concurrent estate Leasehold estate · Condominiums

Conveyancing

Bona fide purchaser Torrens title · Strata title Estoppel by deed · Quitclaim deed Mortgage · Equitable conversion Action to quiet title · Escheat

Future use control

Restraint on alienation Rule against perpetuities Rule in Shelley's Case Doctrine of worthier title

Nonpossessory interest

Easement · Profit Covenant running with the land Equitable servitude

Related topics

Fixtures · Waste · Partition Riparian water rights Lateral and subjacent support Assignment · Nemo dat Property and conflict of laws

Other common law areas

Contract law · Tort law Wills, trusts and estates Criminal law · Evidence

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Blackacre, Whiteacre, Greenacre, and variations are the placeholder names used for fictitious estates in land. The names are used by professors of law in common law jurisdictions, particularly in the area of real property, to discuss the rights of various parties to a piece of land. A typical law school or Bar exam question on real property might say:

Adam, owner of a fee simple in Blackacre conveyed the property "to Bill for life, remainder to Charles, provided that if any person should consume alcohol on the property before the first born son of Charles turns twenty-one, then the property shall go to Dwight in fee simple." Assume that neither Bill, Charles, or Dwight is an heir of Adam, and that Adam's only heir is his son, Edward. Discuss the ownership interests in Blackacre of Adam, Bill, Charles, Dwight and Edward.

Where more than one estate is needed to demonstrate a point – perhaps relating to a dispute over boundaries or riparian rights – a second estate will usually be called Whiteacre,^[1] a third, Greenacre, and a fourth, Brownacre.

Jesse Dukeminier, author of one of the leading series of textbooks on property, traces the use of Blackacre and Whiteacre for this purpose to a 1628 treatise by Sir Edward Coke. Dukeminier suggests that the term might originate with references to colors associated with certain crops ("peas and beans are black, corn and potatoes are white, hay is green"), or with the means by which rents were to be paid, with black rents payable in produce and white rents in silver.^[2]

Blackacre is also the name adopted by a literary journal at The University of Texas School of Law. The journal is compiled and edited each year by the Texas Law Writers League, an organization co-founded by Meera George, Robert Love, and Michael Matthews in 2004.

Blackacre is also the name of a journal at the University of Sydney Law School, published annually by the Sydney University Law Society.

The Blackacre Nature Preserve and Historic Homestead in Kentucky was so named by the donor of the land, Macauley Smith, who had been a judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals.^[3]

"Blackacre" in Louisiana Legal Scholarly Works

In various law journals, treatises, etc. in Louisiana, authors have used the term "arpent noir" as a placeholder name for the purpose of discussing rights concerning immovables.

References