About considerations in the respect of the beneficium competentiae

Abstract

The Roman sources refer in the several cases of debtors which, when demanded, were condemned in id quod facere possunt. This privileged treatment - denominated, starting from the century XVI, beneficium competentiae - had liberated the debtor of the acrities of the forced patrimonial execution, and it moved away the risk of eventual execution on its person. Demanded by a creditor in relation to which enjoyed the benefit, the debtor would be condemned to pay in the measure of its patrimonial possibilities, being, however, the defendant forced to the payment of the remainder of the debt. The limited condemnation, while softening the rigidity of the creditor's right, interferes in a context of humanization of the Roman Law, assisting, regularly, to a ratio that contemplates certain aspects - relationship, gratitude, likeness, etc. - existent in the relationships between the debtor beneficiary and its creditor.