Considerazioni giuridiche sulla natura della moneta

In mainstream economic literature the functions of money (unit of account, means of payment, store of value) are necessarily joined. Heterodoxy criticizes the marginalization of the third one, due to the overlapping of financial and monetary instruments (while legal doctrine over-emphasizes the role of payment functions), hence admits the creation of complementary currencies — in addition to a new scope for «moneta imaginaria» — in order to achieve different aims; but it neglects the impact of civil nominalist rules in the transformation process of money’s nature (as well as of its practical use). Perspectives of monetary law are here discussed in order to focus on value-oriented legal tools able to add value to monetary functions autonomously considered, in accordance with the nominalistic principle’s elasticity.