The concept of patrimony in contract law

In several areas which only recently have become important (like environment, employee participation, surrogate motherhood) contracts and agreements are used to regulate not only patrimonial but also organizational relations. The use of agreements in these areas confronts contract law with new questions and problems. In this discussion the role of the concept of partrimony remained until now beyond the scope. What is this role? What are the (consequences of certain) conceptions about patrimony? What happened to the old doctrine about patrimony and the backgrounds from which it developed?