In Roman law. Cession of goods. A surrender, rellnqulsh-ment, or assignment of all his property and effects made by an insolvent debtor for the benefit of his creditors. Tbe 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 iu modern con-tinental jurisprudence to designate a bankrupt’s assignment of property to be distrib-uted among his creditors, aud is used in tlie same sense hy some Eugllsh and American writers, hut here rather as a conveuient than as a strictly technical term. See 2 Bl. Comm. 473; 1 Kent, Comm. 247, 422; Ersk. Inst. 4, 3, 26
Source: Black's Law Dictionary 2nd Ed (1910)
