00218 - Canon Law

Learning outcomes

The course aims to illustrate thoroughly the legal system of the Catholic Church in the light of the Code of Canon Law promulgated by John Paul II on January 25, 1983, as well as the following legislation, in particular the special law issued for the Italian Church. Moreover, a special importance will be given to the most topical themes and to those expressing the original and specific nature of this unequalled juridical experience. The knowledge of the ius Ecclesiae, that the course intends to provide students with, helps them to understand the fact that the juridical phenomenon is not simply limited to the regulation of the political community, but exists and manifests itself in other dimensions as well.

Furthermore, the law of the Church has played a decisive role in the formation and development of the European legal civilization: studying it is therefore useful, and often essential, in order to achieve the result of a full understanding and of a correct interpretation and application of rules and institutes which drew life from it and only then, with more or less incisive modifications, were borrowed by secular legal systems. A reason for further interest is linked to the legal system of our country: in fact, especially in the 1984 Concordat between Italy and the Holy See, a large number of provisions imply or refer to Canon law, which therefore gains civil effects (e.g. about marriage, cultural heritage, etc.): consequently, students need to develop, also through the presentation of concrete issues, the capability to move with ease within this complex framework of normative sources.

Course contents

The contents of the course are the following, arranged by theme:

 

I. The legal system of the Catholic Church

• Sources of Canon Law. Divine authority and ecclesiastical authority in the “production” of Canon law.
• Legal certainty and requirements of justice.
• Canon law and theology.
• Canon law and secular law.
• Canon law and other religious laws.
• Unity and plurality in the ecclesial juridical experience. Universal law and particular law.
• The law of Christianity: historical hints. Towards the codification of the law of the Catholic Church. The 1917 Codex Iuris Canonici.
• The principles of the Vatican Council II for a new legislation. The 1983 Codex Iuris Canonici and the 1990 Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum orientalium. The Lex Ecclesiae Fundamentalis.

 

II. The people of God

• Social structure: the Church as the people of God and the common priesthood of the faithful.
• The christifidelis and the various living conditions. Clergymen and laymen.
• Consecrated life.
• Marriage and the process regarding the nullity of marriage.
• The matter of the fundamental rights and duties. Human rights and Christians' rights.
• Legal status of the non-baptized.
• Private autonomy in the Church.
• Ecclesial associations and movements.
• Juridic persons.

 

III. The governance of the Church

• Hierarchical system and ecclesiastic organization. Potestas ordinis and potestas jurisdictionis. The munus docendi.
• Legitimization and transmission of power in the Church. The unity of power: legislative, executive and judiciary power. The ecclesiastical office.
• Papal primacy. The Supreme Pontiff and the college of Bishops.
• Central organs of governance. Pope Francis' reform of the Roman Curia.
• Synodality and collegiality in the Church governance. The joint exercise of the Episcopal ministry. The ecumenical council. The synod of Bishops. The conferences of Bishops. The particular councils. The diocesan synod.
• Governance of the local Church. The diocese. The parish. Interdiocesan jurisdictions. Intradiocesan jurisdictions. Military ordinariate. Personal prelacy. Personal ordinariate.

 

IV. Insights into Books V, VI and VII of the Code of Canon Law

• Temporal goods and their administration. The remuneration of the clergy.
• Penal regulation in the law of the Church. Prevention and repression of sexual abuses. The recent promulgation of the new Book VI of the Code of Canon Law.
• The process of beatification and canonization.

 

V. Ius publicum ecclesiasticum: a perspective

• The Church and temporal entities. Christian dualism and the canonistic principles regarding the relationships between the Church and the political community. Religious freedom and libertas Ecclesiae. The Concordats and other agreements.
• The Church and the international community. The international role of the Holy See. The pontifical diplomacy. The Vatican City State.
• The ecumenical perspective.

 

In-depth studies will be dedicated to the provisions adopted by ecclesiastical authorities and to the restrictions suffered by religious freedom following the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the most relevant contemporary ecclesial events, as seen from a jurist’s point of view.

 

For the integration of 1, 2, 3, credits, students must contact the Professor by e-mail to define a custom program.

Erasmus students must contact the Professor by e-mail to define a custom program.

Readings/Bibliography

G. DALLA TORRE, Lezioni di diritto canonico, Quinta edizione aggiornata a cura di G. Boni e P. Cavana, G. Giappichelli Editore, Torino, 2022, pp. XVII-376.

Students have to use this most recent version of the above-mentioned textbook, as it is updated with the most recent reforms by Pope Francis.

 

In addition, students have to choose one of the following alternatives for the special part:

G. BONI, A. ZANOTTI, La Chiesa tra nuovo paganesimo e oblio. Un ritorno alle origini per il diritto canonico del terzo millennio?, G. Giappichelli Editore, Torino, 2012, pp. XIV-198.

G. DALLA TORRE, G. BONI, Conoscere il diritto canonico, Edizioni Studium, Roma, reprint, 2009, pp. VIII-204.

 

In the course of her lessons, the Professor will supply and recommend teaching aids and further learning material, following students' specific requests and interests. The material will be gradually uploaded on the Professor's website and made available to students.

Teaching methods

The course will develop through lectures, seminars and meetings with experts.

Lectures will be given in the IInd semester. As a consequence, students obtaining their attendance certificate in the current academic year are allowed to take their exam only from the month of May. The exam program coincides with the subjects of the course.

Students will be informed about dates and times of the seminars and the meetings with experts during the lectures or through notices, also on the Faculty website. The Professor uses slides (or other supplementary material) that will be made available to students on the Virtuale (Virtual Learning Environment) platform.

Students who attend the course will be invited to actively take part in the analysis of the themes studied in class: students will also be given the opportunity to prepare – with the assistance of the Professor – a written paper about specific issues they are particularly interested in, which will be previously corrected and discussed together, and then evaluated during the final exam, thus concurring to the overall assessment. For this purpose, one or more practice sessions will be held in classroom or online, in parallel to lessons, in which methods for searching for sources and bibliographic materials, and for the formal writing, structuring and drafting of juridical texts will be explained: on this occasion, students will be given time for questions, requests for clarification and further information.

A service of teaching tutorship is provided to students who need clarification about the content of the course and the exam. Students who want to ask for its operating modes have to contact the teacher by e-mail in order to receive communications.

Assessment methods

Only students who have already taken the exams of Constitutional law and Private law are admitted to the final exam.

The verification of learning outcomes consists in an exclusively oral final exam, which will explore the acquisition of the required knowledge and skills through an oral examination sustained with the Professor.

The exam will cover the issues described in the “Course contents” section. The examination entails the assignment of a grade.

Through such exam, the knowledge learned and the critical and methodological skills acquired by the student will be assessed.

In addition to the possession of a mastery of expression and of an appropriate technical language, the student will also have to prove to be able to move confidently within the system of the legal sources on the matter, to have a clear perception of the received information and to have understood and adequately deepened the themes that were addressed in class and explained in the reference textbooks, which will have to be described and argued properly. Learning such skills is easier during the course, the attendance of which is recommended in order to improve the learning process and therefore the student’s performance during the exam.

 

Namely, about the oral exam:

 As previously mentioned, the aim of the oral exam is to assess the actual achievement of the learning outcomes: therefore, both the knowledge of the relevant legal issues and the student’s capability to apply it in order to realize the required logical-deductive connections will be taken into account.

By way of a mere example, the assignment of the final grade will be based on the following criteria:

Sufficient knowledge of a very small number of the topics addressed during the course and analytical skills that only emerge through extensive support by the interviewer, with the use of a language that is not incorrect but is not completely accurate either → 18-19;

Fairly good knowledge of a limited number of the topics addressed during the course and analytical skills that are autonomous only on purely executive issues, with the use of a correct but not fully confident and exhaustive language → 20-24;

Good knowledge of a wide number of the topics addressed during the course and capability to develop autonomous analytical skills, with an efficient and confident use of a technically specific language → 25-29;

Extensive and substantially exhaustive knowledge of the whole program addressed during the course, capability to develop very good legal reasonings and to critically analyze and connect different topics, with a fully confident use of a technically specific language that shows a mature ability to develop original reflections → 30-30L.

The students who attend the course will also be given the opportunity to prepare – with the assistance of the teacher – a paper about specific issues they’re particularly interested in, which will be evaluated during the final exam and will concur to the overall assessment.

Students who need compensatory tools for reasons of disability or Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) will communicate to the teacher their needs so as to be directed to the dedicated person and arrange on the adoption of the most appropriate measures: the same also applies with regard to the final exam.

Students have to book the final exam on the web application AlmaEsami.

 

Thesis

For the assignment of a thesis, students must go to the Professor's office hours in order to discuss and select the subject.

Teaching tools

During the lessons, the Professor will supply and recommend texts and further learning material to complete the preparation.

Students will be informed about dates and times of the seminars and the meetings with experts during the lectures and through notices on the Faculty website.

The Professor uses slides that will be made available to students on the Virtuale (Virtual Learning Environment) platform in order to help them understanding the issues and the institutes explained during the lessons.

Students who need compensatory tools for reasons of disability or Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) will communicate to the teacher their needs so as to be directed to the dedicated person and arrange on the adoption of the most appropriate measures.

The collaborators of the Chair and the Professor receive the students on the same day.

A service of teaching tutorship is provided to students who need clarification about the content of the course and the exam. Students who want to ask for its operating modes have to contact the teacher by e-mail in order to receive communications.

Office hours

See the website of Geraldina Boni