Fuentes de las obligaciones, tipicidad progresiva y obligaciones de protección en el ordenamiento italiano

The essay addresses the contemporary problem of the sources of obligation in light of the development of law that has given rise to obligations of protection – subspecie of obligations in the classical sense–. In particular, the article 1173 of the Italian Civil Code, by providing that sources of obligations can also be facts or acts capable of producing them in accordance with the legal system, opens itself to a progressive typicality: the judge, although he cannot create atypical obligations in the strict sense, can recognize new ones by applying general principles and rules of the legal system. From this perspective, pre-contractual liability based on the obligation of good faith and other provisions of the civil code establish a principle of protection of reliance, especially when it comes to professional activities. Hence an important innovation that adds to contracts and illicit acts the reliance arising from qualified social contacts, as sources of a liability that can be called relational.