4 - Different Models of Equitable Assignment

Summary

This chapter explores the two main conceptions of equtiable assignment as are currently found in the academic discourse, namely, a ‘substitutive transfer’ model, and a ‘partial trust’ model. The former denies that an equitable assignment operates by way of a trust, at all. The latter, however, admits taht where a legal chose in action is equtably assigned, some form of trustee-beneficiary relationship arises between the assignor and her assignee. But it denies that this arises when an equtiable chose in action is equitably assigned. The ‘partial trust’ model therefore takes equitable assignment to be a fragemented doctrrine which works differently, depending on whether the chose that is to be assigned is a common law chose, or one which arises in equity. This chapter then shows how each of these models are deficient, before showing how a composite model of equitable assignment would avoid these deficiencies.