contract of pledge:
(18c)

l. PAWN.

2. Civil law. A real contract by which a debtor gives a creditor property to hold as security for a debt or the performance of a promise.  *  The contract is also called a pawn, when the property is movable, and an antichresis, when the property is immovable.  See (in sense 2) PAWN; ANTICHRESIS.  Cf. pignorative contract. [1]

     Excerpt from Henry Denis’s A Treatise on the Law of the Contract of Pledge as Governed by Both the Common Law and the Civil Law (1898):

     “[A] pledge is a personal security in the Common law, while it is a real security in the Civil law.  Hence, the contract of pledge is a personal contract in the Common law, and a real contract in the Civil law.” [2]

     Excerpt from Leonard A. Jones’ A Treatise on the Law of Collateral Securities and Pledges (Edward M. White ed., 3d ed. 1912):

     “The contract of pledge is in general a contract wholly implied in law.  No written contract is necessary, and generally none is made. if there be a written contract, it is generally made either to show that the transaction is a pledge and not a sale, or to provide a special mode for enforcing the lien.  A mortgage under the registry laws must necessarily be made by a written transfer, while a pledge, though it may be constituted in writing, is ordinarily made by delivery of the property without any writing, the contract of the parties being wholly implied in law.  A delivery of property as security for a debt without a written conveyance cannot be a mortgage, but must be a pledge.” [3]

References:

Disclaimer: All material throughout this website is pertinent to people everywhere, and is being utilized in accordance with Fair Use.