ABSTRACT
Contractual obligations are those which arise through the agreement of the parties to the obligation. What distinguishes the typical contracts one from another in Italian law is the causa of the several contracts. Causa is one of the essentials of contractual obligations. It is an important feature of all the civil law systems which are derived from French law, but is absent from those derived from German private law. To be valid, contracts with an atypical cause must conform to the basic, general requirements for valid contractual obligations in Italian law. These are listed in the Civil Code as the agreement of the parties, causa, object and, where required by law upon pain of nullity, form. Causa is the purpose for which the contract is entered into, for instance for sale, hire or whatever, while the object of the contract is the specific matter about which the parties are contracting.
