Assignment Agreements under English Law: Lost between Contract and Property Law?

摘要

Assignments are commonplace nowadays and are of major importance for all kinds of business transactions. As assignments are transactions between assignor and assignee, one would assume that assignments require an agreement between assignor and assignee so that the former would not lose her claim against her will, and so that the latter would not have to accept any kind of "forced enrichment". A closer look, however, reveals that the situation is anything but clear under English law in this regard. This article first recalls briefly the basics of the English law on assignments. It demonstrates that under English law agreements between assignor and assignee do not seem to be essential for the validity of assignments. In the second part, assignment agreements are discussed from a comparative perspective, and it is shown that other jurisdictions have established rules which differ substantively from English law as far as the requirement of assignment agreements is concerned. Finally, in the third part, problems arising out of the approach English law has taken are discussed. It is argued that where no agreement is required in order to effectuate an assignment, the interests of the different parties concerned cannot be taken care of properly.