The performance of a contract may require third party
involvement towards the fulfilment of obligations under a contract.
In certain specific circumstances, the contracting parties may
decide to "sub-contract" or "assign" their
rights and obligations to a third party depending upon the nature
of the contract.
In common parlance, sub-contracting and assignment are used
interchangeably, however, a significant difference lies between the
two when one examines the terms from a legal stand point. This post
aims to discuss the concept of Sub-Contracting and Assignment and
explains the key difference between the two concepts.
Sub-Contracting
Sub-contracting refers to the delegation of certain duties and
obligations by contracting parties to a third party, i.e. a
sub-contractor who aids in the performance of the contract.
According to the Black's Law Dictionary, a sub-contract is
"where a person has contracted for the performance of
certain work and he, in turn, engages
