Il problema della trasmissibilità passiva dell'azione di danno nella riflessione canonistica classica

This essay aims to test the apparent correlation between passive transmissibility and compensatory function, as well as non-transmissibility and punitive function, of the action for damages, in the light of the classical Canon Law reflection. Here, the vocabulary of punishment, referred to by the semantics of peccatum, seems to coexist with the transmissibility of the action and the need for descendants to compensate the damages resulting from the deceased’s wrongful act. On the basis the conceptual separation between iniustificatio and restitutio presented by Thomas Aquinas, an attempt is made to show that, even in Canon Law, the restitutio is pursued by a reipersecutory action, subject, as such, to passive transmissibility. However, a change to the legal situation of the deceased is associated with the compensation of damages: by means of the restitutio fulfilled by their
heir, they will be able to receive divine forgiveness of their peccatum.