Smith on The Law of Assignment

Smith on the Law of Assignment is the leading text on the law relating to intangible property or choses in action. It's clear and approachable structure covers all forms of intangible property: debts, rights under contract, securities, intellectual property, leases, rights/causes of action, and equitable rights. The book considers the nature of intangible property, how it comes into being, how it is transferred or assigned, the consequences of transfer, and the remedies of the dispossessed owner.

The book's approach is both analytical and practical. The first part of the book analyses the general principles regarding intangibles and their transfer. The book then examines the practical considerations relating to particular types of intangibles, securities, insurance contracts, leases and intellectual property under the law.

The fourth edition includes new chapters on dealing in litigation rights, in particular through collective proceedings, and considers the different regimes governing such proceedings. Other significant developments include expanded content on securities and their modes of transfer, enabling the creation of markets. The work contains fresh analysis of the distinction between tangible and intangible property and articulates where the law of property begins and the law of obligations ends. The fourth edition has also been updated with new material examining the nature of cryptocurrencies.

Rachael Mulheron, Professor of Tort Law, Queen Mary's University London,Marcus Smith,Nico Leslie,Gillian Hughes

Rachael Mulheron KC (Hon) is Professor of Tort Law and Civil Justice at Queen Mary University of London. She is widely published in the areas of class actions, costs and funding, general civil procedure, and Tort law. Professor Mulheron was academic member of the Civil Justice Council of England and Wales 2009-18. As the request of the government or the judiciary, she has chaired various working parties, served as a member of relevant rules-drafting committees, undertaken empirical studies, served as official monitor of a pilot court project, and served as principal author of various reports and publications across numerous topics of controversy within civil procedure.

Sir Marcus Smith was called to the Bar in 1991 and took silk in 2010. Whilst in practice at the Bar (Fountain Court Chambers), he had a broad commercial and Chancery practice. He was appointed a chairman of the Competition Appeal Tribunal in 2009 and was the chair of the Appeals Committee of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority between 2015 and 2017. He became a High Court Judge (Chancery Division) in January 2017. He is authorised to sit as a judge of Financial List and of the Patents Court, and sits additionally in the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery) and the Administrative Court. Between 2019 and 2021, Marcus was Business and Property Courts Supervising Judge for the Midland, Western and Wales Circuits. He relinquished that role on his appointment, in November 2021, as President of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. His three-year term as President expired in November 2024.

Nico Leslie is a leading commercial junior. He is regularly instructed in some of the most significant commercial litigation both in England and internationally, and is recognised in the legal directories as a Leading Junior in the fields of Banking & Finance, Civil Fraud, Commercial Litigation, Insolvency, Offshore, Professional Negligence, Art & Cultural Property and International Arbitration: Counsel. He was named the 'Banking & Finance Junior of the Year' by Chambers & Partners in 2022 (having been nominated for the same award in 2020) and was nominated as 'Professional Negligence Junior of the Year' by Legal 500 in 2023.

Nico was co-author of the second and third editions of The Law of Assignment with Sir Marcus Smith, and has acted, both led and unled, in some of the most significant assignment-related cases of recent years.

I: Foundations1. Introduction2. Nature and Characteristics of Intangibles3. Territoriality and Intangible PropertyII: General4. Causes of Action and Judgement Debts5. Rights Under a Contract6. Debts7. Transfer of Choses in Action: Historical Overview8. Conceptual Underpinnings9. Money, Cryptocurrencies and Negotiable Instruments10. Equitable Assignment of Choses in Action11. Transfer of Choses in Action on Trust12. Promises to Assign or Create a Trust13. Assignments under Section 136 of the Law of Property Act 192514. Dealing in Rights to Litigate15. The Group Litigation Order Regime16. The Multiple Claimants Regime17. The Representative Rule Regime18. Collective Proceedings in Competition Cases19. Assignment of Burdens20. Intangibles Not Transferable by Reason of Public Policy21. Personal Obligations22. Prohibitions on Assignment23. Assertion and Loss of Ownership24. Consequences and Effects of an Assignment25. Extinction of Intangible Property26. Priorities and the Loss of Title27. Vindication of an Owner's RightsIII: Shares, Securities, and Markets28. The Nature of Securities29. Holding and Transfer of Paper Securities30. Holding anf Transfer of Dematerialised Securities31. Holding and Transfer of Immobilised Securities32. Macro-Property and Markets33. Fungible Contracts and Class ActionsIV: Multilateral Intangible Property34. Multilateral Choses35. Creation and Transfer of Intellectual Property RightsV: Security Over Intangible Property36. Security