Cessio Bonorum - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition cessio-bonorum

Definition :

Cessio bonorum (a surrender of goods). By the Roman Law a cessio bonorum of the debtor was not a discharge of the debt, unless the property ceded was sufficient for that purpose. It otherwise operated only as a discharge pro tanto, and exonerated the debtor from imprisonment. Huberus informs us that in Holland a cessio bonorum does not even exempt from imprisonment unless the creditors assent; and Heineccius proclaims the same as the law of some parts of Germany. The Scottish Law conforms to the Roman code in its leading outlines, and the modern code of France adopts the same system, Story's Conflict of Laws, 492; and see 2 Br. & Had.Com. 623.