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Understanding Assignments: English, Comparative And Private International Law: Some Possible Implications, Chee Ho Tham

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It is not always appreciated that equitable assignment is not “assignment”, the latter being a mode of transfer which involves substitution of the assignee in place of the assignor as obligee to the obligor of the chose in action which has been assigned. This article explains how the “substitutive transfer” conception of equitable assignment is contradicted by well-accepted features of assignment law, and suggests an alternative, non-substitutive account of equitable assignment which provides for a much better “fit”. This article will then suggest some of the implications which may arise from looking at equitable assignment in this non-substitutive manner.