The Accessory Character of Guarantees in Roman Law. Are the Present Independent Guarantees Newly Formed Legal Concepts?

Abstract

This work proposes a ref lection on the historical grounds of the current Independent Guaranties. On the one hand the work calls into question their recent origin and cast doubt that their etiology is tied on contemporary international trading requests. It can therefore be concluded that Independent Guaranties, rather than be born ex novo, they are elements of our legal tradition, receiving the baton of some other Classic Roman and Justinianean Law similar affairs. On the other hand, the work questions the understanding of suretyship as a typical guarantee contract model. The work concludes that this conception of suretyship is, by contrast, much more recent, as it comes from European phenomenon of Civil Law codification. The verification of these two statements leads us to consider Independent Guaranties as a specific contract different from the suretyship concept, adding value on their long term rooting in the Roman Law tradition.