A
restraint on alienation, in the
law of
real property, is a clause used in the conveyance of real property that seeks to prohibit the recipient from selling or otherwise transferring his interest in the property. Under the
common law such restraints are void as against the
public policy of allowing landowners to freely dispose of their property. Perhaps the ultimate restraint on alienation was the
fee tail, a form of ownership which required that property be passed down in the same family from generation to generation, which has also been widely abolished.