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Abstract
This paper discusses the state-of-theart notion of "cause" as a socioeconomic function of the act of private autonomy that, based on Emilio Betti’s ideas, was included in the 1942 Codice Civile and, from this, the immediately subsequent Italian civilistic doctrine. The crisis of such a concept comes from its almost exclusive service to the integrity of the judicial system in relation to the acts of private autonomy and its unconcern with the practical protection of the particular interest of the authors of such acts. The above is in tandem with the phenomenon of the decadence of this concept and, even with its disappearance from some recent codes and from the European projects of unified contractual law. It is suggested that a reformulation of this notion must consider this perception and, without leaving out the protective aims of the system on the part of the cause, must also consider the protective aims of the individual interest.