CONFLICT OF LAWS FOR THE ASSIGNMENT OF RECEIVABLES: FROM A PROPERTY-CONTRACT APPROACH TO A RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH

Abstract

The conflict of laws relating to the assignment of receivables raises characterisation difficulties. Based on the property-contract approach currently employed in legal systems, the characterisation of legal issues as contractual and proprietary results in complications. No general solution can be reached regarding the proprietary aspects of assignment, especially third parties’ effectiveness and priority issues. This thesis establishes that the core cause of the difficulty resides in the property-contract approach itself. It therefore attempts to provide a new approach to the conflict of laws for assignment, namely, a rights-based approach. It argues against the property-contract approach on the ground that assignment is not a hybrid of contract and property. Rather, it proves that the true legal nature of assignment is not the transfer of items of property, but a contractual method for transferring contractual rights to payment in receivables. The assignment of receivables not only creates triangular relationships between assignor, assignee and debtor, but also has external effects on third parties. In the rights-based approach, there is no need to differentiate between the contractual and proprietary aspects of assignment. The conflict of laws for assignment is established based on the relationships of rights between relevant persons, i.e. the relationship of rights between assignor and assignee, that between assignee and debtor, and the relationship of rights as it affects third parties including priority issues. These are proposed as being governed by the law of assignment and of assigned receivables. The rights-based approach eliminates the need to refer to property law and resolves characterisation difficulties. Consequentially, it grants an opportunity to modernise and harmonise the law of assignment based on contract law. In this way, positive outcomes vis-à-vis the financial practice concerning the assignment of receivables are the end result of this approach.