''Cessio bonorum'' (Latin for a "surrender of goods"), in

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

, is a voluntary surrender of goods by a

debtor A debtor or debitor is a legal entity (legal person) that owes a debt to another entity. The entity may be an individual, a firm, a government, a company or other legal person. The counterparty is called a creditor. When the counterpart of this ...

to his

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some propert ...

s. It did not amount to a discharge unless the property ceded was sufficient for the purpose, but it secured the debtor from personal arrest. The creditors sold the goods as partial restoration of their claims. The procedure of ''cessio bonorum'' avoided ''

infamia In ancient Rome, (''in-'', "not", and ''fama'', "reputation") was a loss of legal or social standing. As a technical term in Roman law, was juridical exclusion from certain protections of Roman citizenship, imposed as a legal penalty by a ce ...

,'' and the debtor, though his after-acquired property might be proceeded against, could not be deprived of the bare necessaries of life. The main features of the Roman law of ''cessio bonorum'' were adopted in

medieval law In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Scots law Scots law () is the List of country legal systems, legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing Civil law (legal system), civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different histori ...

, and also in

French law French law has a dual jurisdictional system comprising private law (), also known as judicial law, and public law (). Judicial law includes, in particular: * () * Criminal law () Public law includes, in particular: * Administrative law ( ...

. A similar concept of the same name exists in Anglo-American law, (appellant argument). (appellant argument). although this is "used … rather as a convenient than as a strictly technical term."

References

Roman law Debt Medieval Scots law Law of France {{AncientRome-stub