Il concorso della colpa del danneggiato nel risarcimento e la rilevanza penale dell’azione aquiliana

The paper aims at highlighting the peculiarity of the Roman idea of contributory negligence, in comparison to modern Civil law. In Roman law the actions for damages had a penal nature, i.e. their characteristic feature was the cumulative solidarity of the penalty: therefore, except the case when the victim had caused the damage in full, the wrongdoer was always liable for the whole compensation, even if he was only partially at fault. In modern Civil law, on the contrary, since the actions for damages have lost their penal character, in cases of contributory negligence the proportional partition of the damages between the parties is considered the most equitable solution.