CAUZIONE.—A caution, which generally is a measure intended to prevent harm, in legal relations consists in a means provided by the parties or by law: to protect one exposed to prejudice that is not actual but possible; to secure the performance of an obligation already existing; or to guarantee the exercise of certain functions. A caution is among the means protecting the creditor’s right, inasmuch as it provides a guarantee that strengthens the obligatory bond or otherwise ensures performance of the obligation.
A caution has an existence subordinate to the right it safeguards; hence it is accessory in character, and only when the harm occurs does it serve to remedy II. It may be required by law or by the judge, or agreed upon by the parties; it may be furnished by the obligor himself or by another person on his behalf. A caution may be provided in various ways: through the constitution of real rights over movable property (pledge), or over immovable property (mortgage), or through the constitution of obligations whereby another debtor (suretyship) is added to the principal obligor (suretyship). There are also procedural cautions, which are not properly given to strengthen the protection of a right, but rather, generally by order of the judge, as security for the execution of a judicial measure, including a future one, or in order to obtain from the judge a favorable measure that might prove harmful to others if a caution were not furnished.
The CIC fully refers to the provisions of the civil law of the respective territory (canon 1529) for all matters concerning cautions in contractual affairs; moreover, it determines the individual cases of cautions to be furnished in proceedings: canons 1626, 1631, 1674, 1907 § 2, 1909 § 1, 1917 § 1. By virtue of canon 137, clerics are forbidden to provide suretyship even with their own property.
In canon law, the promises that the contracting parties must make in order to obtain a dispensation from the matrimonial impediments of disparity of worship or mixed religion are also called cautions (v. DISPARITÀ DI CULTO).