lawyer

The canon law of the Catholic Church is the system of laws and legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Church to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the Church. [ 1 ]

In the Catholic Church, universal positive ecclesiastical laws, based upon either immutable divine and natural law. or changeable circumstantial and merely positive law. derive formal authority and promulgation from the office of pope, who as Supreme Pontiff possesses the totality of legislative, executive, and judicial power in his person. [ 2 ] The actual subject material of the canons is not just doctrinal or moral in nature, but all-encompassing of the human condition.

It has all the ordinary elements of a mature legal system: [ 3 ] laws, courts, lawyers, judges, [ 3 ] a fully articulated legal code, [ 4 ] principles of legal interpretation, [ 5 ] and coercive penalties. [ 6 ] It lacks civilly-binding force in most secular jurisdictions. The academic degrees in canon law are the J.C.B. (Juris Canonici Baccalaureatus. Bachelor of Canon Law, normally taken as a graduate degree), J.C.L. (Juris Canonici Licentiatus. Licentiate of Canon Law ) and the J.C.D. (Juris Canonici Doctor. Doctor of Canon Law ). Because of its specialized nature, advanced degrees in civil law or theology are normal prerequisites for the study of canon law.