Chapter Summary
A right in security is a right that is ancillary to the main obligation owed by the debtor to the creditor. Rights in security fall into two broad categories, real and personal. A real security is a real right held by the creditor in some item of the debtor's property, entitling the creditor either to retain possession of that property until payment or performance, or to sell it to recover what is due.
A personal security is a personal right held by the creditor against a third party who has agreed to guarantee performance of the obligation, and from whom performance can be demanded if the principal debtor should default. Both real and personal securities fall if the main obligation falls.Further Reading
J.3.14.4; 3.20
D.13.7; 20.1-6
C.2.28; 4.24; 8.13-34
R van den Bergh, ‘The Development of the Landlord's Hypothec' (2009) 15 Fundamina 155
R J Goebel, ‘Reconstructing the Roman Law of Real Security' (1961-2) Tulane LR 29
W M Gordon, ‘Roman Influence on the Scots Law of Real Security' in R Evans- Jones ed, The Civil Law Tradition in Scotland (Stair Society 1995)
H Hausmaninger and R Gamauf, A Casebook on Roman Property Law (G A Sheets trans, Oxford University Press 2012) 266-319
E Metzger ed, A Companion to Justinian’s Institutes (Duckworth 1998) 70-3
D E Phillipson, ‘Development of the Roman Law of Debt Security' (1967-8) 20 Stanford L Rev 1230
A J M Steven, ‘Rights in Security over Moveables' in R Zimmermann and K Reid eds, A History of Private Law in Scotland, Volume I: Introduction and Property (Oxford University Press 2000)
H L E Verhagen, ‘The Evolution of Pignus in Classical Roman Law: Ius· Honorarium and Ius Novum’ (2013) 81 TvR 51
R Zimmermann, The Law of Obligations: Roman Foundations of the Civilian Tradition (Oxford University Press 1996) 114-36