ASSIGNATION is a legal term in Scotch conveyancing, analogous to the English word assignment (q.v.), by means of which the holder of any right, or the creditor in any obligation, or the proprietor of any subject not properly feudal (see FEUDAL SYSTEM), transfers his right or estate to a third party. The party making the A. is called the cedent, and the party in whose favor the A. is made is called the assignee or cessionar y, and the act of assignment thus made is irrevocable, an element in the deed which has been traced to the practice of the French law, a source from which the Scotch lawyers of the 16th c. borrowed so much—the court of session itself being a mere copy of the par liament of Paris. A direct conveyance of a debt in France was termed ten transport; the granter, cetiant; and the grantee, cessionnaire; and these terms, derived from a Latin origin, were introduced into the Scotch law; and hence the names of the parties to an A., as we have stated. Unlike the English common-law view of the assignment, the Scotch A. has the effect of investing the assignee with the whole right, which was in the cedent, although according to the ancient practice, the A. gave, not simply the sum or subject assigned, but also the deed or written evidence of the right or thing assigned, a form arising from the circumstance of the instrument having been regarded as of the nature of a mandate or power of attorney to time assignee to make his claim and to act as in right of the cedent. In modern practice, however, it is usual to employ simply the terms
convey, and make over,' which correspond with the real character of the deed. In order, however, to complete the A., it must be intimated to the common debtor—that the party originally indebted to the cedent—and so essential is this intimation, that in the case of competing claims against the right interest or estate assigned, the A. first intimated will be preferred to one prior in date, but posterior in the date of intimation. Such inti mation ought to be made by a notary public (q.v.), but other formal notice of the A. is sometimes admitted. . But.. there are certain assignations which require no intimation, such as the indorsentent Of 'bills of adjudication is a judicial A., and marriage, which is a legal A.; and the same is the rule with regard to all right and U. K. I.-51 estate assigned under the operation of the bankruptcy laws. In Scotch agricultural leases, assignees are generally excluded expressly.
But although A. is the strict Scotch term for assignment, the latter is in Scotland the technical term for the transference of certain property, ,such as property in copyrights, patents, and registered vessels.