L’accollo del debito

The Assumption of debt is one of the most ancient institutes of civil law, which realizes a passive-subjective modification of the obligatory agreement. There are only few procedural guidelines on this institute, for this reason jurists have long questioned themselves about the structure, the cause and the subject of the Assumption of debt. This piece of writing aims to identify an innovative theory relative to the nature of the assumption of debt, to be intended not as the contract itself in favour of a third party but as a contract with an essential three-sided structure. Moreover, there’s the attempt to demonstrate the subsistence of a dual causal profile, given the presence in the assumption of debt of both the generic cause and the specific cause; this peculiarity, identified with respect for the reconstruction on the cause of the transaction, makes the institute of assumption of debt very adaptable and adequate to satisfy the most heterogeneous needs of the partners. In conclusion, the subject of the assumption has been analyzed, dedicating more attention to the assumption of future debts. After demonstrating the validity of assumption on future debts a comparison has been made between the assumption of future debts, the bail bond omnibus and the letter of comfort, identifying similarities and differences between the three. The paper finds its bases on the historical introduction with the aim of reproducing and understanding the phenomenon of third party debt assumption, already present in ius civile, with a specific reference to the dispositions of 1804 and 1865 codes.