What, exactly, is Canon Law?

Question

I've been hearing about it on the show Boston Legal.

Answer 1

Canon law is the law of the Catholic church, formed with 2000-odd years of precedent. It covers many issues such as papal elections, etc.

Answer 2

As pjdscott said, Canon Law is ecclesiastical law. It is a codified, written law, published and now online.

Catholic (it is wrong to say "Roman Catholic" because the Pope and the Vatican and Catholic Canon Law apply equally to the eastern rites of the Church (essentially those that parallel each of the Orthodox churches and which are in "communion with Rome")) Canon Law is the most referenced one. Changes and additions to it appear in the Vatican's official gazette, the Acta Apostolicae Sedis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acta_Apostolicae_Sedis (There is a "Supplemento" to the gazette which contains the civil law of the Vatican and has been published at least since the 1929 Lateran Convention http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/treaty.htm (between Mussolini's Italy and the Vatican) setting out the Vatican's sovereign rights and defining its territory.)

Canon (or Sharia, Jewish, Hindu, etc.) law can become relevant to civil law in a number of ways. Before the 20th Century, ecclesiastical law governed inheritance (and hence title to property) in various countries. Parties may agree to be bound by it, the same way they can be bound by an arbitration clause. And many countries incorporate religious law in various ways in their civil codes. The study of this is known as "legal pluralism".

Israel http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/c7aae196f41aa055052565f50054e656!OpenDocument , India, the Lebanon and most predominanlty Muslim countries apply a person's religious law to his or her personal life. Thus adoption may be impossible for Muslims, divorce for Catholics, and inheritance depends on particular religious rules. (In the Philippines there is a "Civil Code for Muslims" which permits divorce and polygamy: non-Muslims cannot do either.)

I am unfamiliar with Boston Legal, so I can't comment on how it might be relevant to the program. I see it has a Web site though: http://abc.go.com/primetime/bostonlegal/index.html

Answer 3

It is the law of the church, typically the Roman Catholic church. The Anglican and Greek Orthodox churches also have their own canon laws. established over the centuries and sometimes modified at Synod (gathering of the big wigs such as Bishops, etc).

It is probably more important to Catholics than non-conformists since it tends to be more rigidly enforced (eg., in modern time you should attend Mass weekly, attend confession, etc).

You'll find a little about the Irish and religion in my website (linbk below).

Hope this helps,

Peter

Answer 4

There are also Judicial Canons which set forth the ethical rules for judges to follow.