ABSTRACT
The analysis of the changes in the discipline and sources of legal institutes at the basis of financial market transactions cannot be conducted without considering the macro-economic context in which these transactions take place. Indeed, the legal discipline of the institute of monetary obligations is emphatically conditioned by its object of regulation: that is, payment of sums of money. Events affecting money directly affect the regulation, existence, modification and extinction of debts. These events are external to the legal sphere within which debts have arisen (usually private autonomy), and thus monetary obligations are subject to heteroelements.1 It is clear that an event such as the largest monetary takeover in history, implemented as the final stage of creation of the European Economic and Monetary Union, requires special attention whenever monetary obligations are taken into consideration. The effects of the adoption of the euro and the creation of the Economic and Monetary Union are relevant not only as a change of currency, but especially in view of the wider integration of financial markets which is taking place in the European Union.
