Guest on the Law of Assignment

Guest on the Law of Assignment provides a thorough statement of the law of voluntary assignment relating to debt, contractual rights, guarantees, and deals with insurance, shares and intellectual property. It includes, for each issue or topic, the authority that supports the legal principle.

It goes through the nature of assignment, commencing with a definition of assignment, before outlining and giving examples of choses in action; detailing the requirements for assignment; and looking at the relationship of assignment and other transactions.

Guest on the Law of Assignment:

• Explains the nature of assignment, commencing with a definition of assignment, before outlining and giving examples of choses in action
• Covers the requirements for assignment; and the relationship of assignment and other transactions
• Provides a thorough statement of the law of voluntary assignment including, for each issue, the authority that supports it
• Examines the law of assignments under section 136 of the Law of Property Act 1925, explaining its effect and requirements, and including the assignment of an equitable chose
• Goes through equitable assignment and agreements to assign, covering both an equitable assignment of an equitable chose and of a legal chose
• Deals with restrictions on assignment, covering contractual terms forbidding assignment, prohibition by statute or public policy, and personal contracts and covenants
• Covers the position of creditors, trustees in bankruptcy and personal representatives of the assignor, and the liquidator of an assignor company
• Analyses the problems associated with priorities, including those between competing assignees, competing holders of interests in shares, and an assignee and a chargee under a charge created by a company
• Considers special priority rules and variation of priorities
• Looks at situations where there is assignment of obligations or liabilities
• Establishes defences available to the obligor under assignments subject to equities, including defences that impeach the existence or enforceability of the chose in action assigned, set-off, and right of retainer
• Reviews available financing devices involving assignment, with coverage of financing of receivables, factoring, block discounts, and securitisation
• Covers key cases in this area of law and their implications
• Addresses conflict of laws, centring on the law applicable to contractual obligations under Article 14 “the Rome I Regulation”, as well as Transactions outside Article 14
• Covers key case law, including:
• • Dearle v Hall (1828) on priorities between competing assignees
  • Linden Gardens Trust Ltd v Lenesta Sludge Disposals Ltd (1994) on prohibition of assignment
  • Pan Ocean Shipping Co Ltd v Credit Corp Ltd (1994) on position of the assignee
  • Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG v Five Star General Trading LLC (2001) as indicative of the correct interpretation of Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 593/2008 
• Written in the Common Law Library style so you can find a statement of the law and the authority that supports it
• Eminent author who is a former General Editor of Chitty on Contracts and Benjamin’s Sale of Goods