Cession

Contracts. Yielding up; release. France ceded Louisiana to the United States by the treaty of Paris, of April 30, 1803. Spain made a cession of East and West Florida by the treaty of February 22, 1819. Cessions have been severally made of a part of their territory by New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Civil Law. The act by which a party assigns or transfers property to a other; an assignment.

Eccl. Law. When an ecclesiastic is created bishop, or when a parson takes another benefice without dispensation, the first benefice becomes void by a legal cession, or surrender.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.