Cession

"Cede" redirects here. For the financial institution, seeCede and Company.

Not to be confused withsessionorsecession.

The act ofcessionis the assignment ofpropertyto another entity. Ininternational lawit commonly refers tolandtransferred bytreaty.Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdiction by a board in favor of another agency."In contrast withannexation,where property is forcibly seized, cession is voluntary or at least apparently so.

Examples

In 1790, the U.S. states ofMarylandandVirginiaboth ceded land to create theDistrict of Columbia,as specified in theU.S. Constitutionof the previous year. The Virginia portion wasgiven backin 1847, a process known as "retrocession".

Following theFirst Opium War(1839–1842) andSecond Opium War(1856–1860),Hong Kong(Treaty of Nanking) andKowloon(Convention of Peking) were ceded by theQing dynastygovernment ofChinato theUnited Kingdom;and following defeat in theFirst Sino-Japanese War,Taiwanwas ceded to theEmpire of Japanin 1895.

Territorycan also be ceded for payment, such as in theLouisiana PurchaseandAlaska Purchase.

Specific areas of law

Contract law

This is a yielding up, or release.FrancecededLouisianato theUnited Statesby the treaty of Paris, of April 30, 1803 following theLouisiana Purchase.Spain made a cession ofEastandWest Floridaby the treaty of February 22, 1819. Cessions have been severally made of a part of their territory by New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Civil law

Under thecivil law system,cession is the equivalent ofassignment,and therefore, is an act by which a personal claim is transferred from the assignor (thecedent) to the assignee (thecessionary). Whereasreal rightsare transferred by delivery,personal rightsare transferred by cession. Once the obligation of the debtor is transferred, the cessionary is entirely substituted. The original creditor (cedent) loses his right to claim and the new creditor (cessionary) gains that right.

Ecclesiastical law

When an ecclesiastic is createdbishop,or when aparsonorrectortakes another benefice without dispensation, the first benefice becomes void by a legal cession, or surrender.

Retrocession

Retrocessionis the return of something (e.g., land or territory) that was ceded in general or, specifically:

Examples:

• District of Columbia retrocession,the retrocession to Virginia, and potentially to Maryland, of the land ceded to create the District of Columbia
• Retrocession ofLouisiana (New Spain)from Spain to France, formally accomplished just three weeks before the U.S. received the Louisiana Purchase lands from France

Disputed case

• The claimed "Taiwan retrocession" refers to the view that thesovereigntyofTaiwanhas been handed over in 1945 from Japan to theRepublic of China,the widely-recognized government ofChinaat the time, following Japan's loss inWWII.Whether this "retrocession" is legitimate underinternational lawis adisputed issuein the complexpolitical status of Taiwan.See also:Taiwan Retrocession Day.

Ininsurance,retrocessional arrangements generally are governed by a reinsurance or retrocessional agreement and the principles applicable to reinsurance also are applicable to retrocessional cover.

See also

• Boundary dispute– Disagreement over the possession or control of land between countries or their subdivisionsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Ecclesiastical ordinances
• Escheat– State taking ownership of 'unowned' land
• Jurisdiction– Authority granted to a legal body or political leader to deal with legal matters
• Land back– Movement by Indigenous people in North America to reclaim landsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• List of territory purchased by a sovereign nation from another sovereign nation