Cessio Bonorum

Cessio Bonorum (in Roman law) signified a debtor's surrender of his property to his creditors. It did not operate as a discharge of his debts unless the property surrendered was adequate to their discharge, if otherwise after acquired property was available for their liquidation, so that the debtor was not left in want. Therefore Cessio bonorum operated as a discharge pro tanto only. In Holland, according to Huberus, it did not even exempt the debtor from imprisonment, unless the creditors acquiesced, and the same law prevails in many parts of Germany. In Scotland the law on this subject is similar to that of the Roman Code in its principal features. The modern code of France adopts the same system. Cessio bonorum amounts to an act of bankruptcy in England.

By an important statute passed in 1881 the debtor under a cessio may obtain a statutory discharge in case of his paying 5s. in the to his creditors, or satisfying the sheriff that it is not his fault such a dividend has not been forthcoming.