FUTURE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

FUTUREAuthored

The Law Mind • 1061 words

Definition

As a standalone legal modifier, FUTURE describes interests, obligations, damages, or events that arise or become enforceable at a time after the present moment. It operates across multiple doctrinal contexts:

Future interests (property). A category of property interests in which the holder's right to possession or enjoyment is postponed to a future time. The interest exists and is legally cognizable now — it is only the enjoyment that is deferred. Future interests include remainders, executory interests, reversions, possibilities of reverter, and rights of entry.

Future damages (torts). Compensation awarded for harm that has not yet occurred at the time of trial but is reasonably certain to occur — including future medical expenses, future lost earnings, and future pain and suffering. Courts typically require reduction to present value.

Future advances (secured transactions). Loans or credit extended after the original security agreement is executed, where the original instrument expressly covers or is later amended to cover such additional sums. Priority rules governing future advances vary by jurisdiction and context.

Futures (commodities/financial law). Contracts for the purchase or sale of a commodity or financial instrument at a fixed price for delivery at a specified future date. "Dealing in futures" has historically described speculative contracts where actual delivery is not intended. Now a distinct and heavily regulated field of financial law.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Having to do with or occurring in the future.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): That is to be or come hereafter; that will exist at any time after the present.

The common meaning is purely temporal — something that hasn't happened yet. The critical legal gap is that most legal uses of "future" do not describe something nonexistent. A future interest in property is a present, vested legal right; only its possession is deferred. A researcher who reads "future interest" as meaning no current legal interest will fundamentally misread property and trust documents.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Future interest: Umbrella term for remainders, executory interests, reversions, possibilities of reverter, and rights of entry. Each has distinct characteristics governing vesting, transferability, and vulnerability to the Rule Against Perpetuities.

Future damages: Subdivided in tort practice into economic (future medicals, future lost wages) and non-economic (future pain and suffering). Reduction to present value is required for economic future damages in most jurisdictions.

Future advances: A secured-lending concept governing whether a security interest or mortgage covers credit extended after the instrument's execution. Treated separately from the underlying loan for priority purposes.

Futures contracts: Standardized exchange-traded contracts for future delivery, now regulated primarily under federal commodities law. Distinct from forward contracts, which are customized and traded over the counter.

Why It Matters in Research

The term "future" appears across wholly different doctrinal areas, and navigating corpus materials requires recognizing which branch you are in. Property and trust materials use "future" primarily to describe the timing of possession, not the existence of the right — careless reading produces errors in analysis of vesting and Rule Against Perpetuities problems. Tort materials use "future" to describe prospective harm that must be proven with reasonable certainty and then discounted; older cases may not reflect modern present-value reduction requirements, so temporal context matters. Secured transactions materials use "future advances" as a term of art with significant priority implications that shifted substantially with the adoption of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code — pre-UCC materials and non-Article-9 jurisdictions treat future advances quite differently.

The commodities sense of "futures" is the most self-contained but also the most historically volatile. Anderson's note that "dealing in futures" grew out of "purely speculative transactions" with nominal contracts and no intent of actual delivery reflects the nineteenth-century legal suspicion — sometimes treated as wagering — that surrounded futures trading. Modern law treats regulated futures contracts as fully legitimate; historical sources reflecting the older hostility should not be imported into contemporary analysis.

Researchers working across property and trusts materials should be alert to the distinction between vested and contingent future interests, which affects not only the Rule Against Perpetuities but also alienability, taxation, and cy pres analysis in trust modification contexts.

Historical Dictionary Support

Anderson's Dictionary of Law identifies two uses of "future" as a legal modifier: (1) the general temporal sense, illustrated by compound terms such as future advances, future damage, future earnings, and future estate; and (2) the commodities sense, described as "purely speculative transactions in which there is a nominal contract" — language that reflects the period's legal skepticism about futures trading. Anderson's treatment is brief and compounds-oriented rather than analytical, which means it usefully catalogs the range of applications without explaining the internal doctrine of any one of them. Researchers relying solely on Anderson's for future interests doctrine will find the entry inadequate; the entry points toward the relevant concepts without developing them.

Historical sources generally do not address the present-value reduction requirement for future damages — that doctrine developed substantially in the twentieth century — and pre-UCC sources on future advances will not reflect the current Article 9 framework. These are predictable gaps when working with any nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century dictionary material on these subjects.

Jurisdictional Note

Future interests doctrine, including the Rule Against Perpetuities, varies significantly: many states have reformed or abolished the Rule, and a handful have adopted the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities. Future damages reduction to present value is required by most but not all jurisdictions, and methods for calculating the reduction differ. Future advances priority under real property mortgage law remains non-uniform in states that have not fully adopted Article 9 frameworks for all security interests.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Future Interests — Executory Interests (The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia)
Negligence — Damages — Future Damages and Present Value (The Law Mind Torts & Personal Injury Encyclopedia)
Cy Pres and Equitable Modification of Future Interests (The Law Mind Trusts, Estates & Probate Encyclopedia)

FUTUREmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

change the nature and purposes of the corporation, or of the enterprise for the prosecution of which it was created, are "fundamental." 1 That which may or will be hereafter: as, future advances, damage, earnings, estate, qq. v. See also DEVISE, ExTIME; USE, 2. Futures. The expression "dealing in futures" has grown out of those purely speculative transactions in which there is a nominal contract of sale for future delivery, but where in fact none is ever intended or executed. The nominal seller does not have or expect to have the stock or merchandise he purports to sell, nor does the nominal buyer expect to receive it or to pay the price. Instead, a percentage or "margin" is paid, which is increased or diminished as the market rates go up or down, and accounted for to the buyer. This is simply speculation and gambling; mere wagering on prices within a given time.3 "One person says: I will sell you cotton (for example) at a certain time in the future for a certain price. You agree to pay that price, knowing that he has no cotton to deliver at the time, but with the understanding that, when the time for delivery arrives, you are to pay him the difference between the market value of the cotton and the price you agreed to pay, if cotton declines, and, if it advances, he is to pay you the difference between what you promised to give and the advanced market price." 4 There is no gambling unless both sides gamble; and from the intent or belief of one party it is not fair to presume a like intent or belief as to the other party. See further WAGER, 2. 21; 13 R. I. 20; 30 Vt. 224; 2 Munf. 234; 5 id. 272; 18 Wis. 1 Mower v. Staples, 32 Minn. 286 (1884), cases, Berry, 163; 1 Ves. Sr. 97; 1 Jarman, Wills, 591, 596, note; 2 Judge. Williams, Ex. 1017. 2 Donald v. McWhorter, 44 Miss. 29 (1870); Matter of Luckey, 4 Redf. 95 (1879); 14 S. & R. 64. Shaeffer v. Shaeffer, 54 Md. 683 (1880). See, in general, McClellan v. Filson, 44 Ohio St. 188-89 (1886), cases. 4 Bell v. Golding, 27 Ind. 179 (1866), Ray, C. J. See also Crossman v. Baldwin, 49 Conn. 491 (1882). [Fore v. Hibbard, 63 Ala. 412 (1879), Manning, J. • Towns v. Pratt, 33 N. H. 350 (1856), Sawyer, J. Endicott v. Endicott, 41 N. J. E. 96 (1886); M'Micken v. M'Micken University, 2 Am. Law Reg. 489 (1863); 2 Jarm. Wills, 352; 63 N. Н. 295. 1 Weaver v. The S. G. Owens, 1 Wall. Jr. 369, 359 (1849), Grier, J. 2 Gordon v. Appeal Tax Court, 3 How. 147 (1845). 3 King v. Quidnick Company, 14 R. I. 138 (1883), Stiness, J. See also Hatch v. Douglas, 48 Conn. 127 (1880), Carpenter, J. 4 Cunningham v. Nat. Bank of Augusta, 71 Ga. 403 (1883), cases, Blanford, J.; Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Watson, 30 F. R. 653 (1887). * Bangs v. Hornick, 30 F. R. 98 (1887), cases. See generally Marshall v. Thurston, 3 Lea, 740 (1879), cases; & Hoopes's Appeal, 60 Pa. 227 (1869), cases, SharsBartlett v. Smith, 13 F. R. 263 (1882); Irwin v. Millar, wood, J. Richardson v. Hall, 124 Mass. 237 (1878), Colt, J. See also 33 Me. 535; 14 Mich. 506; 1 Johns. Ch. 329, 1 Robt. 110 U. S. 499, 508-11 (1884), cases; Kirkpatrick v. Adams, 20 F. R. 287, 293 (1884); Beadles v. McElrath, Sup. Ct. Ky. (1887): 3 S. W. Rep. 152, note. G

FUTUREa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

That is to be or come hereafter; that will exist at any time after the present; as, the next moment is future, to the present. Future tense (Gram.), the tense or modification of a verb which expresses a future act or event.

FUTUREn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Time to come; time subsequent to the present (as, the future shall be as the present); collectively, events that are to happen in time to come. "Lay the future open." Shak. The possibilities of the future; -- used especially of prospective success or advancement; as, he had great future before him. A future tense. To deal in futures, to speculate on the future values of merchandise or stocks. [Brokers' cant]

futureadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Having to do with or occurring in the future.

futurenoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

The time ahead; those moments yet to be experienced. | Something that will happen in moments yet to come. | Goodness in what is yet to come. Something to look forward to. | The likely prospects for or fate of someone or something in time to come. | Verb tense used to talk about events that will happen in the future; future tense. | Alternative form of futures. | An object that retrieves the value of a promise. | A minor-league prospect.

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