Tradition
(Ref: John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and the Several States of the American Union, Childs & Peterson, c1856.)
TRADITION, contracts, civil law. The act by which a thing is delivered by one or more persons to one or more others.
In sales it is the delivery of
possession by the proprietor with an intention to transfer the property to the receiver.
Two things are therefore requisite in order to transmit property in this way: 1. The
intention or consent of the former owner to transfer it; and, 2. The actual delivery in
pursuance of that intention.
Tradition is either real or
symbolical. The first is where the ipsa corpora of movables are put into the hands of the
receiver. Symbolical tradition is used where the thing is incapable of real delivery, as,
in immovable subjects, such as lands and houses; or such as consist in jure (things
incorporeal) as things of fishing and the like. The property of certain movables, though
they are capable of real delivery, may be transferred by symbol. Thus, if the subject be
under look and key, the delivery of the key is considered as a legal tradition of all that
is contained in the repository. Cujas, Observations, liv. 11, ch. 10; Inst. lib. 2, t. 1,
Sec. 40; Dig. lib. 41, t. 1, 1. 9; Ersk. Princ. Laws of Scotl. bk. 2, t. 1, s. 10, 11;
Civil Code Lo. art. 2452, et seq.
In the common law the term used in
the place of tradition is delivery. (q.v.)
