Canon law

Lore & Background

In all three traditions, a canon was originally a rule adopted by a church council; these canons formed the foundation of canon law. The term 'canon' comes from Greek κανών, meaning a rule.

The Catholic Church has what is claimed to be the oldest continuously functioning internal legal system in Western Europe, much later than Roman law but predating the evolution of modern European civil law traditions. The history of Latin canon law can be divided into four periods: the jus antiquum, the jus novum, the jus novissimum and the Code of Canon Law. The canon law of the Eastern Catholic Churches underwent its own codification, resulting in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches promulgated in 1990 by Pope John Paul II.

Reader's Guide

Catholic canon law is a fully developed legal system with courts, lawyers, judges, a legal code, principles of interpretation, and coercive penalties, though it lacks civilly-binding force in most secular jurisdictions. Academic degrees in Catholic canon law are the J.C.B., J.C.L., and J.C.D. Much of its legislative style was adapted from the Roman Code of Justinian. Roman ecclesiastical courts tend to follow the Roman Law style of continental Europe with collegiate panels of judges and an investigative form of proceeding called 'inquisitorial'. The institutions and practices of Catholic canon law paralleled the legal development of much of Europe, and both modern civil law and common law bear its influences.

Did You Know?

• The Apostolic Canons are a collection of ancient ecclesiastical decrees (eighty-five in the Eastern, fifty in the Western Church) concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church.
• In English law, criminals could apply for the benefit of clergy to be tried by ecclesiastical rather than secular courts; this was abolished by the Criminal Law Act 1827.
• The first Code of Canon Law (1917) was exclusively for the Latin Church, with application to the Eastern Churches only in cases which pertain to their very nature.