Definition
A term of Scots law denoting the formal process by which a person was invested with rights in land under the feudal system. In its older usage, infeftment encompassed the complete act of infeudation — both the charter (the written grant of the land) and seisin (the formal, symbolic act of taking possession). In later Scots law, the term narrowed in ordinary usage to refer specifically to sasine, or the recorded instrument evidencing possession, rather than the entire transaction.
In essence, infeftment was the mechanism by which feudal title to land was constituted and perfected in Scotland. Without infeftment, a grantee held no real right in land — the personal right under the charter alone was insufficient. The recorded instrument of sasine completed the transfer and gave the right its legal effect against third parties.
Common Confusion
Infeftment and enfeoffment are closely related but should not be treated as identical. Enfeoffment is the general common law term for the act of investing a person with a fief or fee, used across English and Norman legal tradition. Infeftment is the specifically Scottish variant, shaped by Scots feudal law and the Sasine register system. The two terms overlap in meaning but diverge in their procedural context: infeftment carries the specific technical weight of Scots conveyancing practice, including the role of the Register of Sasines, which has no direct English counterpart. Researchers working in Scots legal sources should not assume that English common law treatments of enfeoffment describe infeftment accurately.
Why It Matters in Research
The meaning of infeftment shifted materially over time, and researchers must identify which period of Scots law a source is addressing. In older sources, infeftment described the whole feudal investiture — charter plus seisin together. In later practice, it collapsed into a near-synonym for sasine, meaning the recorded instrument of possession. A source using infeftment in the broad sense is almost certainly pre-18th century; use in the narrow sense tracks the maturation of the Register of Sasines (established 1617) and the routinization of recorded title.
The abolition of the feudal system in Scotland by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, which took effect in 2004, rendered infeftment as a living operative concept largely obsolete in modern Scots conveyancing. Researchers encountering the term in post-2004 Scottish sources will find it used historically or in transitional contexts only.
Cross-corpus connections: infeftment sits at the intersection of Scots feudal land law, the Register of Sasines, and the broader concept of real rights in Scots property law. Researchers exploring Scottish title chains in historical documents will encounter infeftment frequently alongside sasine, disposition, and precept of sasine. Understanding that infeftment was the constitutive act of real right — not merely evidence of a personal obligation — is essential for correctly reading conveyancing documents from the feudal period.
A trap in historical sources: English legal dictionaries, including some editions of Black's, treat infeftment briefly and by analogy to enfeoffment. This can mislead researchers into applying English common law assumptions about seisin and livery to a system that operated differently. Scots feudal law had its own procedural logic, and the Register of Sasines gave recorded infeftment a public, third-party effect that the English livery of seisin did not replicate in the same way.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary and Burrill's Law Dictionary provide virtually identical entries, both drawing on Forbes' Institutes (part 2, p. 110) for the older definition and Bell's Dictionary for the later, narrower meaning. The agreement across these sources is complete and reflects a settled understanding of the term's evolution. Both dictionaries correctly identify the two-stage development: broad (charter plus seisin) to narrow (sasine or instrument of possession).
What the historical dictionaries do not supply is the procedural and policy context that makes infeftment significant — specifically, the role of the Register of Sasines in transforming infeftment from a ceremonial act into a registered, publicly effective right. Bell's Dictionary, cited in both sources, is the more authoritative guide to the later meaning, as Bell wrote within the tradition of Scots law proper rather than from a comparative common law perspective. Researchers needing depth beyond these brief entries should consult Bell's Principles of the Law of Scotland or Erskine's Institute of the Law of Scotland directly.
Jurisdictional Note
Infeftment is exclusively a term of Scots law. It has no operative meaning in English, Welsh, or Irish property law, and only analogical meaning in comparative feudal law scholarship. In Scotland, it is now a historical term following the 2000 abolition of the feudal tenure system.