Legal Nature Pauline Action - I

Abstract

The Pauline action can be seen as a form in which a creditor, injured by the fraudulent acts of one’s debtor concluded with or for the benefit of a third party, seeks legal protection from the court competent to pursue forcely the asset belonging to a person other than the debtor. As an institution born in the cradle of Roman law, the Pauline action naturally reappeared in the attention of civil law science in the process of the transposition of Roman law in Western Europe. However, the real rise of the Pauline action was only marked by the development of capitalist relations in the XVII-XIX century, when jurists were asked for remedies in order to fight against vicious debtors. It is not by chance, therefore, that the classical theories attempting to explain the institution of the Pauline action were developed by the German doctrine of the XIX century, marked by the Pandectist current. These theories are characterized by the attempt to frame the Pauline action within the framework of one or other of the traditional institutions of civil law. Among the classical theories, however, we also find theories that recognize the sui generis character of the Pauline action, a theory also supported by us.