Timothy Garvey J.C.L. J.D.

The Christian faithful have various rights under both natural law and canon law, but what remedies are available when those rights are violated?  Canon law provides various options, including the ability to vindicate rights through a legal suit in an ecclesiastical court.  Although the Church does not claim the jurisdiction to determine all legal disputes, the Code of Canon Law (1983) (“Code”) explains that the Church adjudicates cases regarding or connected to spiritual matters, as well as certain violations of ecclesiastical laws and matters involving a question of sin (can. 1401).  Canon 221§1 further provides that the Christian faithful “can legitimately vindicate and defend the rights which they possess in the Church in the competent ecclesiastical forum according to the norm of law”.  This article will give some brief historical remarks on the Church’s role in judicial dispute-resolution, before surveying a number of present-day canonical rights which may be the object of vindication through a lawsuit and certain aspects of procedural law relating to such a suit.  Finally, an interesting decision of the Roman Rota will be considered in which a priest sued two bishops for defamation.  Importantly, this is an area in which canon law may overlap significantly with relevant civil laws, so it is important to obtain both canonical and civil law advice before attempting to sue anyone in an ecclesiastical court.

Since the times of the Roman Empire, the Church has been involved in settling disputes between her members.  One of the very early aspects of canon law, and a major reason why historical and current canon law draws so heavily from the Roman legal tradition, was the so-called ‘episcopal audience’.  By the reign of the Emperor Constantine in the early fourth century, bishops were often called upon to resolve disputes among the faithful through a form of arbitration.  After granting liberty to the Church, Constantine recognized the competence of bishops to judge certain civil cases among the faithful, rendering these episcopal decisions enforceable by the imperial administration subject to verification by an imperial judge that the bishop was a Catholic (i.e. not a heretic) and had followed correct legal procedure.  In the subsequent centuries, the Church continued to develop her own law and courts, as well as influencing the development of European secular law.  For example, the body of English law known as ‘equity’, including the law of trusts and certain aspects of inheritance law, was heavily influenced by ecclesiastically trained lawyers prior to the English Reformation.