In Roman law. Cession of goods. A surrender, relinquishment, or assignment of all his property and effects made by an insolvent debtor for the benefit of his creditors. The effect of this voluntary action on the debtor’s part was to secure him against imprisonment or any bodily punishment, and from infamy, and to cancel his debts to the extent of the property ceded. It much resembled our voluntary bankruptcy or assignment for creditors. The term is commonly employed in modern continental jurisprudence to designate a bankrupt’s assignment of property to be distributed among his creditors, and is used in the same sense by some English and American writers, but here rather as a convenient than as a strictly technical term.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
civil law. The relinquishment which a debtor made of his property for the benefit of his creditors. 2. This exempted the debtor from imprisonment, not, however, without leaving an ignominious stain on his reputation. By the latter Novel, an honest unfortunate debtor might be discharged, by simply affirming that he was insolvent, without having recourse to the benefit of cession. By the cession the creditors acquired title to all the property of the insolvent debtor. 3. The cession discharged the debtor only to the extent of the property ceded, and he remained responsible for the difference.