Reflections of Formal Sources of Law in Canon Law: An Analysis of Ecclesiastical Custom, the Holy See’s Normative Acts, Jurisprudence, the Possibility of Public Normative Agreements, and Legal Doctrine

Abstract

The article examines ecclesiastical customs of the Roman Catholic Church, the judicial and administrative decisions of the Holy See, internal agreements, normative legal acts, authentic interpretation, and legal doctrinal statements, with the aim of determining their conformity to the category of formal sources of law from the perspective of secular legal theory. The analysis deliberately excludes concordats concluded by the Holy See as a subject of international law and the law of the Vatican City State, focusing instead on canon law as the internal law of the Church. The study relies on doctrinal and hermeneutical (textual, systemic, and teleological) interpretation of the canons, as well as systemic and comparative methods, juxtaposing the sources of canon law with the principles of secular legal theory. The research demonstrates that ecclesiastical customs (legally approved either generally or specially) and the normative acts of the Holy See exhibit the characteristics typical of formal sources of law: obligatoriness, generality, normativity, publicity, and hierarchical structure. Meanwhile, administrative and judicial decisions ordinarily do not create legal norms, but in situations of legal gaps they acquire precedential (subsidiary) value comparable to precedent models known in secular legal doctrine. Public normative agreements within the institutions of the Holy See are virtually non-existent due to their instrumental nature. The article also identifies the role of legal doctrine as a subsidiary source and reveals both the structural analogies and differences between the sources of canon law and those of secular legal systems. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the internal logic of canon law and its place within the broader panorama of legal theory and may be useful both to legal scholars interested in the sources of canon law and to those seeking to better understand the interrelations and theoretical significance of different legal systems.