Definition
Assignatio is a Latin and Law Latin term meaning an assigning or assignment — the formal act of transferring a right, interest, or obligation from one party to another. The term appears in civil law and old English legal contexts and functions as the nominal form of the verb assignare (to assign). It is encountered most often in historical legal instruments, pleadings, and writs rather than in modern legal drafting.
The term also appears in several recognized compound forms carrying more specific meanings. Assignatio dotis refers to the assignment of dower — the formal allotment of a widow's dower interest in her late husband's lands. The prepositional phrases ex assignatione (from or on the assignment) and per assignationem (by the assignment) appear in writs and pleadings to indicate the basis or mode of a conveyance or entitlement.
Why It Matters in Research
Assignatio is a term a researcher encounters rather than searches for. It will surface in transcriptions of Latin writs, medieval pleadings, and early modern common law records — particularly in proceedings touching dower, ecclesiastical property, or feudal tenure. Researchers working with original register entries or early printed abridgments should expect it to appear without translation.
The compound form assignatio dotis is the most practically significant. Dower assignment was a formal legal process with procedural steps, and the term marks passages in Bracton and in the Registrum Brevium concerning the widow's right to have her dower portion measured and allotted. Researchers tracing the history of dower procedure will find assignatio dotis a useful indexing term in those sources.
The phrase ex assignatione appears in the Registrum Originale (Register of Writs) and in Dyer's Reports in contexts involving title held by assignment rather than original grant. Per assignationem appears similarly in reported cases. Both phrases function as terms of art in pleading, signaling the legal basis of the party's claim. Researchers reading early English reports should treat these not as decorative Latinisms but as load-bearing terms that identify the nature of the plaintiff's or defendant's interest.
Because assignatio is a civil law term absorbed into English legal usage, researchers working across both traditions should note that its meaning in the Digest and Institutes is consistent with its English use — there is no significant semantic drift between the civilian and common law contexts for this term.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the essential frame. Burrill identifies the term as belonging to both civil law and old English law, which is accurate — it appears in Justinian's Institutes (3.9) and Digest (38.4.1.6), as well as in Bracton (fol. 314) and in the Registrum Originale. The entry is brief but sufficient, and its citations are reliable guides for primary source research.
Burrill does not discuss the procedural context of assignatio dotis in detail, which limits the entry's usefulness for researchers specifically investigating dower procedure. For that context, Bracton's treatment remains the more substantive source. No other historical dictionary in the Law Mind shelf covers this term. The absence of coverage in later dictionaries (such as Black's or Bouvier's) reflects the term's obsolescence in practice by the nineteenth century, when anglicized equivalents had fully displaced Latin pleading forms.
Jurisdictional Note
Assignatio is a historical term without active jurisdictional variation. It belongs to the Latin and Law Latin layer of English common law and civil law scholarship. Researchers should not expect to encounter it in modern statutes, regulations, or court decisions.