The relation between the clausula “rebus sic stantibus” and testaments was established by legal science and legal practice during the late Middle Ages and the early modern age. The application of the clausula in this field proved indeed to be an effective method of resolving conflicts between the due respect for the free will of a deceased person and the necessity to adapt the testamentary provisions in the case of a fundamental and unexpected change in circumstances after the time of the testament.1 As is well known, theclausulawas devised by medieval legal science as a remedy to justify the release from an obligation in the case of a radical and unforeseeable change in circumstances that made performance of the obligation itself not impossible but excessively difficult; the fundamental idea was that implicit in any act of will concerning a commitment for the future was the condition that circumstances must remain as they existed at the time of the act in order for the obligation to remain valid. In the early construction of the theory, the concept of act of will was very broad and included both unilateral and bilateral legal transactions; by the end of the 14th century, the clausula “rebus sic stantibus”, originally conceived for oaths and promises, was extended and applied to acts of will in general, including agreements of various kinds and testamentary dispositions.2 the will of the testator and the clausula “rebus sic stantibus” 222 1 For current Italian law, the question of the adjustment of the testament in relation to changes in the reality kept in mind by the testator is explored – also from a comparative perspective and some hint about historical developments – in Giardini 2003, where the following definition of testamentary supervenience is provided: “il mutamento di quelle circostanze di fatto o di diritto che siano state tenute in considerazione dal testatore in modo determinante” for the testament as a whole, and for individual testamentary dispositions (p. 87); “deve trattarsi di realtà che il testatore non fosse in grado di ipotizzare e valutare al momento della redazione dell’atto testamentario, come pure di realtà che egli dava per certo non sarebbero mai mutate” (p. 88). It should be noted that, in order to avoid conceptual confusion and for the sake of clarity, in this paper the word “will” is used exclusively to indicate the content of the act of the will (voluntas), never as a synonym of testament. 2 On the origin and development of theclausuladuring the Middle Ages and the early modern age, see Macino 2015, pp. 70–83, and note 72, p. 70, for a survey of part of the historiography on the subject; see also Rummel 1991; Wijffels 1998; Pichonnaz 2009; Landi 2015; Köbler 1991, pp. 23–36. The clausula “rebus sic stantibus” and testaments
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