Assignation is the Scottish term for transfer of rights (sometimes also known in English as assignment or cession). For many centuries, throughout Europe, the transfer of rights was not recognised. But it was never so in Scotland: 'Assignations', remarked the 17th century judge and jurist, Lord Stair, 'are more frequent with us than anywhere'. Nonetheless, the law of assignation has lacked any detailed study, perhaps as a result of its location on the boundary between the laws of property and contract.
This book thus fills the gap in the literature. Taking the claim to payment as the paradigm right, it places the Scots law of assignation in its comparative and historical context, and distinguishes assignation from those other legal devices by which a creditor may utilise his receivables. In the process it exhumes a great deal of forgotton case law. Among the topics considered are:-