In English
common law,
fee tail or
entail is a form of
trust established by deed or settlement which restricts the sale or
inheritance of an
estate in
real property and prevents the property from being sold, devised by
will, or otherwise
alienated by the tenant-in-possession, and instead causes it to pass automatically by
operation of law to an heir pre-determined by the settlement deed. The term
fee tail is from
Medieval Latin feodum talliatum, which means "cut(-short)
fee", and is in contrast to "
fee simple" where no such restriction exists and where the possessor has an absolute title (although subject to the
allodial title of the monarch) in the property which he can bequeath or otherwise dispose of as he wishes. Equivalent legal concepts exist or formerly existed in many other European countries and elsewhere.