Abstract

The paper focuses on the analysis of debt covenants within the theoretical framework of private law. A first section addresses the economic (and legal) rationale generally advanced in order to justify the insertion of covenant clauses in loan agreements and goes through a categorization of the covenants according to their different functions. The classifications of debt covenants within the categories of private law currently proposed by legal scholarship are then investigated and put under scrutiny for the purposes of verifying their capability to fully understand the nature of such clauses. A proposal for the qualification of debt covenants in terms of ancillary obligations (accessori) attached to the credit is eventually suggested, however clarifying that the possibility of said ancillary obligations (accessori) to be assigned jointly with the relevant credit varies depending on the single class of covenant