Also known as: indeterminacy · indeterminate sentence
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A duration or condition lacking any fixed or ascertainable termination point or measurable limit. The absence of an express end date or triggering event leaves the obligation or interest open-ended under the governing instrument.
Island Manufacturing granted a neighbor an easement across its loading dock for truck access. The recorded instrument contained no expiration clause and identified no event that would end the right. Years later the neighbor continued using the dock without interruption. Because the servitude duration remained indeterminate, the burden continued to run with the land until terminated under other applicable rules.
The statute created an accounting oversight board whose members could be removed only for cause by commissioners who themselves could be removed only for cause by the President. The layered protection produced an overall effect on presidential control that the Court described as indeterminate. The structure therefore raised a constitutional question about the President's removal power.
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A state statute allowed a judge to impose an indeterminate sentence above the ordinary maximum after finding that the defendant had acted with racial bias. The finding rested on facts neither admitted by the defendant nor found by a jury. The Court held that the indeterminate enhancement violated the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial.
A coastal council regulation barred all development on beachfront lots. The owner proved that the restriction left the parcels without any economically viable use. The Court treated the resulting deprivation as indeterminate in duration because the regulation contained no sunset provision or compensation mechanism.
Taxpayers challenged federal expenditures that allegedly violated the Establishment Clause. The Court examined whether their injury was concrete or remained too indeterminate to support standing. Because the link between the expenditures and the claimed harm was speculative, the suit was dismissed.
A trial judge ordered the courtroom closed to the press and public during a murder trial without articulating any overriding interest. The Court found the justification for closure indeterminate because the record supplied no specific findings showing necessity. The order therefore violated the First Amendment right of access.
It means the instrument creating the servitude supplies no express end date and identifies no event certain to occur at a fixed or computable time. The servitude therefore continues until terminated by other legal rules such as abandonment or changed conditions.
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A personal servitude ends no later than the death of the benefited or burdened individual. An indeterminate servitude lacks even that measuring life and persists until another termination rule applies.
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No. Although it has no built-in expiration, it remains subject to termination under doctrines such as changed conditions, abandonment, or release. The label merely indicates the absence of a predetermined duration in the creating instrument.
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…Law § 2.4, p. 48 (1986) (footnotes omitted). The Court itself has noted that "nuisance concepts" are "often vague and indeterminate." Milwaukee v. Illinois , 451 U. S. 304, 317 (1981). [^maj-20]: See generally Sax, 74 Yale L. J., at 56-59. "The evidence certainly seems to indicate that the mere fact that government…