Canonical Law Research Articles

Zdrada tajemnicy spowiedzi w obowiązującym prawodawstwie kościelnym

Sacrament of penance as a sign of reconciliation between God and man, and exercised in the Church community obliges the minister to the humble and dispositional services to people wishing to experience the Divine Mercy, but it also requires the minister to prudence, sensitivity and delicacy, and above all to maintain absolute secrecy regarding the sins espoused by the penitent. The secret of confession is absolutely inviolable. It derives not only from ecclesiastical law, but above all has a basis in the law of God. Hence the confessor was obliged to secrecy of confession, which applies it to the end of life and does not stop even after the death of the penitent. The seal of confession is protected on one side by prohibiting, under penalty of using the knowledge acquired in the act of confession, followed by non-clerics interviewed as a witness on circumstances learned during confession. On the other hand, secular legislation out of respect for the Church’s canon law incorporates the principles and provisions excludes the possibility of questioning as a witness of the clergy of the facts about which they learned during confession. The entity, which may allow a betrayal of the seal of confession is the only minister of the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, because he owes a duty of confidentiality. Translator or a third-hearing confession by the case are obliged to secrecy of confession. The sacramental may be affected in two ways: either directly or indirectly. Direct betrayal occurs when the minister of the sacrament of penance and reconciliation talking about a specific person mentions the fact that familiar with her confession. Indirect betrayal arises when the confessor reveals the matter of confession, but without disclosing the person of the penitent or vice versa. From the way breach of confidentiality of confession, and thus the gravity of the betrayal of the sacramental seal, the legislature church addicted criminal sanctions. Betrayal of the sacramental seal is a crime for which the canonical penal law provides for appropriate sanctions. Direct betrayal of the seal of confession triggers penalties in the form of a penalty of excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Indirect betrayal, because of the lighter nature of the crime is punishable by an unspecified, appropriate to the gravity and sanity action. Punishable acts consisting of betrayal secret confession barred after ten years from the date of the offense.

Size distribution of Portuguese firms between 2006 and 2012

This study aims to describe the size distribution of Portuguese firms, as measured by annual sales and total assets, between 2006 and 2012, giving an economic interpretation for the evolution of the distribution along the time. Three distributions are fitted to data: the lognormal, the Pareto (and as a particular case Zipf) and the Simplified Canonical Law (SCL). We present the main arguments found in literature to justify the use of distributions and emphasize the interpretation of SCL coefficients. Methods of estimation include Maximum Likelihood, modified Ordinary Least Squares in log–log scale and Nonlinear Least Squares considering the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. When applying these approaches to Portuguese’s firms data, we analyze if the evolution of estimated parameters in both lognormal power and SCL is in accordance with the known existence of a recession period after 2008. This is confirmed for sales but not for assets, leading to the conclusion that the first variable is a best proxy for firm size.

Fashion as an Institutional System

Abstract The analysis of the relationship between fashion and institutions could represent a new approach in the theoretical analysis of fashion. This article is an attempt to show how, from an analysis of Simmel, Lotman, Volli and Legendre and a semiotic-juridical perspective, the topic of fashion can be linked to an anthropological-juridical perspective and a juridical conception of fashion as a normative institution. Juridical knowledge appears to be essential for the anthropological understanding of the phenomenon of fashion and too many studies have forgotten the contribution of the juridical sciences to the theoretical configuration of the question. From a complex historical-juridical analysis of the notion of Corpus Iuris (Kantorowicz) emerges the value of the medieval notion of corpus mysticum as a fictional body, referring to a political context that is both liturgical and ritual. The reference to this idea thus passes from the Corpus Iuris Civilis of medieval canonical law to the modern aesthetic signification (fictional and iconic) of the notion of the political body, referring to the modern state, which is still to be found on the well-known frontispiece of Hobbes’ book the Leviathan and then to the fictional and stylised bodies of the models in a fashion show. Following the theories of Legendre, the conclusion of this article suggests to reintroduce the secularised juridical and theological lexis for the aesthetic relationship between the natural body and the fictitious body, seen as a mystical and political body, considered present in the practices of dressing and twentieth-century fashion. Fashion is one of the forms through which, in mobilising desire, the human being constructs that “second body”, fictitious, represented, parallel to the real body, which is constitutive of the subjective and collective identity of a society. This body is fashioned under the ritualised and institutionalised form of the garment that hides the body, concealing its animality, which gives access to a collective fictitious reality, of which, we could add, all the products of the semiosphere, including the juridical institutions, are formed.

Scale (in)variance in a unified diffusion model of decision making and timing.

Weber's law is the canonical scale-invariance law in psychology: when the intensities of 2 stimuli are scaled by any value k, the just-noticeable-difference between them also scales by k. A diffusion model that approximates a spike-counting process accounts for Weber's law (Link, 1992), but there exist surprising corollaries of this account that have not yet been described or tested. We show that (a) this spike-counting diffusion model predicts time-scale invariant decision time distributions in perceptual decision making, and time-scale invariant response time (RT) distributions in interval timing; (b) for 2-choice perceptual decisions, the model predicts equal accuracy but faster responding for stimulus pairs with equally scaled-up intensities; (c) the coefficient of variation (CV) of decision times should remain constant across average intensity scales, but should otherwise decrease as a specific function of stimulus discriminability and speed-accuracy trade-off; and (d) for timing tasks, RT CVs should be constant for all durations, and RT skewness should always equal 3 times the CV. We tested these predictions using visual, auditory and vibrotactile decision tasks and visual interval timing tasks in humans. The data conformed closely to the predictions in all modalities. These results support a unified theory of decision making and timing in terms of a common, underlying spike-counting process, compactly represented as a diffusion process.

Territorial Dioceses and Ethnic Episcopies in the Structure of the Church Organization of the First Bulgarian Kingdom (Canonical Aspects)

The coexistence of ethnic and territorial principles in the structure of ecclesiastical organizations is a well known fact in church history. Both principles are equally legitimate from the point of view of canonical law. The “ethnic principle” was based on legal norms of the so-called 34th Apostolic Rule, and contrary to the opinion of scholars of the 19th century, it was still in use after the era of the Ecumenical Councils. This fact must be considered by students of the history of Church organizations in the First Bulgarian Kingdom, too. The observations regarding the structure of church organizations in Simeonic Bulgaria make it possible to assume the coexistence of ethnic and territorial principles of church organizations in his kingdom. As is known, Slavonic church schools were established in the southwestern part of the First Bulgarian Kingdom after 886. They were aimed at training the Slavonic clergy for the Slavonic church organization. In 893, the Bulgarian King Simeon was elevated to the throne, and a Slavonic eparchy headed by St. Clement of Ohrid was established in the southwestern territories of the First Bulgarian Kingdom. As a result, heterogeneous church organizations were established in the region, and church structures of ethnic and territorial types appeared. They differ from each other by the language of their church services. Old Church Slavonic must have been used as a liturgical language in the ethnic Slavonic eparchy. Since direct historical evidence for such heterogeneous church structure in the First Bulgarian Kingdom is absent, new interpretations of sources made on the basis of canonical law can be of importance for Slavonic studies.

More than Copy and Paste. The Drafting of the Judicial Order in the Decrees of the Third Mexican Council

This article compares the legislation promulgated by the Synod of Granada (1572) and the Third Mexican Provincial Council (1585) regarding procedural canonical law. Diego Romano, bishop of Puebla, served as a vehicle between the Spanish and Mexican Assemblies, and he was clearly inspired by the former when drafting the latter. The article pays attention to the level of appropriation and via a comparison of the texts addresses the question whether it is possible to say that Iberian procedural law was copied by the prelate.

Pieśni nabożne wydane przez o. Tymoteusza Szczurowskiego w kontekście repertuaru wykonywanego w środowiskach rzymskokatolickich i unickich w Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów

The article is devoted to sacred songs issued by Tymoteusz (Tomasz Jozef) Szczurowski, (1740–1812), Basilian monk, a religious writer, a doctor of theology and canonical law, protonotary of the Holy See, a missionary acting in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The most of songs Szczurowski published in the period of being an monk in a Basilian monastery in Biala, owned by Radziwills, and while he was in charge of a missions in Brześc parish. I compared them with sacred songs from the Roman Catholic and Uniate repertoire preserved in handwritten and printed sources, among others published in printing house of The Grand Dutchy of Lithuania. In religious works Wzor doskonalości panienskiej [ The model of virgins’ perfection ], Glos wzbudzający serca chrześcijanskie [ The voice inspiring christian hearts ] and Misja Bialska [ Mission of Biala ] Szczurowski printed many sacred songs in Polish and Ukrainian (transliterated in Latin alphabet) without notation of music for the needs of Greek Catholic Church. These works mentioned in the sources of the subject, sometimes attributed to Szczurowski’s authorship, deserve deeper exploration. On the basis of preserved printed works Szczurowski might be considered the creator of Polish and Ukrainian language sacred songs – the common heritage of Poland and Ukraine. As the result of the research conducted by myself such opinion should be disclaimed at least when it refers to songs Straszliwego majestatu Panie [ The Lord of the terrifying majesty ] and Boze w dobroci nigdy nie przebrany [ Lord of never exhausted goodness ], which were in circulation among Polish speaking Roman Catholic communities of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth already in times close to Szczurowski’s birthday. Songs from the Catholic repertoire published in Misja Bialska issue of 1792 not only confirm their popularity among the followers of the Greek Roman rite, but they also bear testimony of the meaning and role of the sacred songs in Szczurowski’s mission activity.

Catholic Church Responses to Clergy-Child Sexual Abuse and Mandatory Reporting Exemptions in Victoria, Australia: A Discursive Critique

This article presents empirical findings from a critical discourse analysis of institutional responses by the Catholic Church to clergy-child sexual abuse in Victoria, Australia. A sample of 28 documents, comprising 1,394 pages, is analysed in the context of the 2012-2013 Victorian Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations. Sykes and Matza’s (1957) and Cohen’s (1993) techniques of, respectively, neutralisation and denial are used to reveal the Catholic Church’s Janus-faced responses to clergy-child sexual abuse and mandatory reporting requirements. Paradoxical tensions are observed between Catholic Canonical law and clerical practices, and the extent of compliance with secular law and referral of allegations to authorities. Concerns centre on Church secrecy, clerical defences of the confessional in justification of inaction, and the Melbourne Response compensation scheme. Our research findings underscore the need for greater Church transparency and accountability; we advocate for mandatory reporting law reform and institutional reform, including adjustments to the confessional ritual.

Departure from the Church and Fundamental Rights in the Canonical System: The Protection of Religious Freedom and of the Ius Connubii

In today’s context of progressive secularization of society it is a matter of great importance to study the legal situation of the faithful who have abandoned the Church and the protection of their natural rights within the canonical law. In particular, it focuses on two of the most significant rights: religious freedom and the right to marry (ius connubii). Faithful status should not hinder the exercise of the natural rights. This is a premise recognized by the authors, but the fulfillment of this principle must be checked in the specific legal standards concerning the faithful, and in particular the faithful that live away from the Church.

Interpreting the electrophysiological power spectrum.

Recent experimental findings suggest that there may be rich physiological information embedded within the power spectrum of neurophysiological recordings, which, in addition to power in specific oscillatory frequencies, can be extracted with the appropriate model. This article reviews previous empirical and modeling results, as well as the canonical power law model that is often used to describe the power spectrum. In addition, a modified power law model with parameters estimating synaptic and spiking contributions is proposed.

The topology and geometry of self-adjoint and elliptic boundary conditions for Dirac and Laplace operators

The theory of self-adjoint extensions of first- and second-order elliptic differential operators on manifolds with boundary is studied via its most representative instances: Dirac and Laplace operators. The theory is developed by exploiting the geometrical structures attached to them and, by using an adapted Cayley transform on each case, the space [Formula: see text] of such extensions is shown to have a canonical group composition law structure. The obtained results are compared with von Neumann's theorem characterizing the self-adjoint extensions of densely defined symmetric operators on Hilbert spaces. The 1D case is thoroughly investigated. The geometry of the submanifold of elliptic self-adjoint extensions [Formula: see text] is studied and it is shown that it is a Lagrangian submanifold of the universal Grassmannian Gr. The topology of [Formula: see text] is also explored and it is shown that there is a canonical cycle whose dual is the Maslov class of the manifold. Such cycle, called the Cayley surface, plays a relevant role in the study of the phenomena of topology change. Self-adjoint extensions of Laplace operators are discussed in the path integral formalism, identifying a class of them for which both treatments leads to the same results. A theory of dissipative quantum systems is proposed based on this theory and a unitarization theorem for such class of dissipative systems is proved. The theory of self-adjoint extensions with symmetry of Dirac operators is also discussed and a reduction theorem for the self-adjoint elliptic Grassmannian is obtained. Finally, an interpretation of spontaneous symmetry breaking is offered from the point of view of the theory of self-adjoint extensions.

Fluctuations around equilibrium laws in ergodic continuous-time random walks.

We study occupation time statistics in ergodic continuous-time random walks. Under thermal detailed balance conditions, the average occupation time is given by the Boltzmann-Gibbs canonical law. But close to the nonergodic phase, the finite-time fluctuations around this mean are large and nontrivial. They exhibit dual time scaling and distribution laws: the infinite density of large fluctuations complements the Lévy-stable density of bulk fluctuations. Neither of the two should be interpreted as a stand-alone limiting law, as each has its own deficiency: the infinite density has an infinite norm (despite particle conservation), while the stable distribution has an infinite variance (although occupation times are bounded). These unphysical divergences are remedied by consistent use and interpretation of both formulas. Interestingly, while the system's canonical equilibrium laws naturally determine the mean occupation time of the ergodic motion, they also control the infinite and Lévy-stable densities of fluctuations. The duality of stable and infinite densities is in fact ubiquitous for these dynamics, as it concerns the time averages of general physical observables.

Wymiar kary przy zbiegu przestępstw w prawie karnym kanonicznym i kara łączna w polskim prawie karnym

Coincidence of crime in the canonical law and in the Polish penal law is treated in the equivalent manner. The term of imprisonment with such coincidence, in Canon Criminal Law, is based on the rule of punishment accumulation for crimes, from which there is a possibility of facultative punishment remission on account of their scale. The possibility of reduction of accumulated punishment is only in the scope of ferendae sententiae. Polish Criminal Law defines the term of imprisonment with the crimes coincidence as combined punishment. It is the synthesis of all punishments for the crimes abiding/remaining in the coincidence and inflicting the unified punishment within the range predicted by the legislator.

Zwyczaj w prawie kanonicznym i w prawie polskim

In this article, the author presents the issue of legal practices in the canonical legal system and in Polish law. In the introduction, was presented the general characteristics of the legal traditions and their importance in contemporary legal systems. In the next section the author is analysing customs in the canonical law as well as is making interpretation can. 23-28 of Code of Canon Law of customs resolving issues. A next part of the article is a characterization of customs in the system of the Polish law and analysis of applicable regulations of the civil law under the angle of the customary law.

Novedad y perfección del pensamiento de los prácticos sobre los delitos en particular

La ordenación del pensamiento de los penalistas occidentales constituye una incidencia del fenómeno receptor del Derecho Civil y el Derecho canónico. Entre sus representantes más egregios figura Julio Claro de Alejandría, perteneciente a la escuela de la madurez de los prácticos e introductora en España de una etapa de reflexión y progreso. Una fase superadora de los adelantos de los comentaristas iniciales de las fuentes romanas y del esfuerzo subsiguiente de los postglosadores. El análisis alfabético de los delitos, al que preceden algunas consideraciones generales y una clasificación, comprende el adulterio, el asesinato, la falsificación en sentido amplio, la fornicación, el incesto, la injuria, el crimen de lesa majestad, el juego, el parricidio, el perjurio, el rapto, el sacrilegio, la simonía, la sodomía y el estupro. Las ediciones manejadas han dado lugar a que, no obstante la densidad descriptiva del texto latino y la detención que requiere extraer del mismo ciertas formulaciones y principios, se adquiera una noticia razonable de cómo –atenta a los flujos de la recepción– la obra de Julio Claro de Alejandria señala el punto de inflexión entre la atención al cuadro de los elementos históricamente significativos y las adiciones doctrinales que provocó su advenimiento.

The Basics of The Discourse “Justice for Everybody”in The Quran

The aim of this study, which will contribute the discussions of worldpeace in an humble way, is to evaluate the Quranic verses that we consider related to justice for everybody, taking into account classical and modern approaches, especially the ones in Quran exegesis literature. In this paper, various questions related to this matter will be discussed: What is the content of justice? What does the Quran mean when it says “judge among men in truth (and justice)”? Is there any ambivalent attitude in implementing justice related to close relatives? What does the Quran advise Muslims about the justice demands of non-Muslims? Is it a problem if the persecuted ones are Muslims or not? Does the Quran impose its own law upon the ones who want to practice their own (canonical) law? Does the Quran present all non-Muslims as a single category, or distinguish between non-Muslims who fight against Muslims and those who do not? Does hatred against a community legalize unjust behavior against that community?

Various Effects of the Protection Guaranteed by Canonical Administrative Law: A Comment on Some Decrees of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

SUPREMO TRIBUNALE DELLA SEGNATURA APOSTOLICA, Decreto del Segretario, Scelta della chiesa di una nuova parrocchia, 5 luglio 2011. SUPREMO TRIBUNALE DELLA SEGNATURA APOSTOLICA, Decreto del Prefetto in Congresso, Soppressione di parrocchia, 23 settembre 2011. SUPREMO TRIBUNALE DELLA SEGNATURA APOSTOLICA, Decreto del Segretario, Circa l’uso di una chiesa, 20 gennaio 2012.

Rozbój w świetle prawa karnego polskiego i kanonicznego

The article touches upon the crime of banditry as seen in criminal canonical law. It depicts the way in which the crime of banditry was presented in the Code of Canonical Law both of 1917 and of 1983. The crime of banditry is committed by a person who steals another person’s property while resorting to or threatening to resort to violence or while bringing a person to the state of unconsciousness ordefenselessness.Banditry falls within intentional crimes intended to take another person’s property willfully in order to misappropriate it.The crime of banditry has always been treated as one of the heaviest crimes against property. In terms of its burden, the way the crime was committed is decisive, among others. Frequently this attack ends up in taking life of an assaulted person or in a serious damage to his or her body.In criminal canonical law the crime of banditry falls within mixti fori crimes which means that the perpetrator may be pursued and punished both by church and national authorities. The canonical judge while respecting the principle of natural law which says ne bis idem, is forced to take into account national criminal laws in his proceedings. Such reasoning is justified by CIC/1917 can. 2198, can. 1933 §3, can. 2223 §3 n. 2 and can. 2354 §1-2 and in CIC/1983 particularly can. 1344 n. 2 and can. 1399.

Complex dynamics in the distribution of players’ scoring performance in Rugby Union world cups

The evolution of the scoring performance of Rugby Union players is investigated over the seven rugby world cups (RWC) that took place from 1987 to 2011, and a specific attention is given to how they may have been impacted by the switch from amateurism to professionalism that occurred in 1995. The distribution of the points scored by individual players, Ps, ranked in order of performance were well described by the simplified canonical law Ps∝(r+ϕ)−α, where r is the rank, and ϕ and α are the parameters of the distribution. The parameter α did not significantly change from 1987 to 2007 (α=0.92±0.03), indicating a negligible effect of professionalism on players’ scoring performance. In contrast, the parameter ϕ significantly increased from ϕ=1.32 for 1987 RWC, ϕ=2.30 for 1999 to 2003 RWC and ϕ=5.60 for 2007 RWC, suggesting a progressive decrease in the relative performance of the best players. Finally, the sharp decreases observed in both α(α=0.38) and ϕ(ϕ=0.70) in the 2011 RWC indicate a more even distribution of the performance of individuals among scorers, compared to the more heterogeneous distributions observed from 1987 to 2007, and suggest a sharp increase in the level of competition leading to an increase in the average quality of players and a decrease in the relative skills of the top players. Note that neither α nor ϕ significantly correlate with traditional performance indicators such as the number of points scored by the best players, the number of games played by the best players, the number of points scored by the team of the best players or the total number of points scored over each RWC. This indicates that the dynamics of the scoring performance of Rugby Union players is influenced by hidden processes hitherto inaccessible through standard performance metrics; this suggests that players’ scoring performance is connected to ubiquitous phenomena such as anomalous diffusion.

Alfvén wave mixing and non-JWKB waves in stellar winds

Alfvén wave mixing equations used in locally incompressible turbulence transport equations in the solar wind contain as a special case, non-Jeffreys–Wentzel–Kramers–Brouillon (non-JWKB) wave equations used in models of Alfvén wave driven winds. We discuss the canonical wave energy equation; the physical wave energy equation, and the JWKB limit of the wave interaction equations. Lagrangian and Hamiltonian variational principles for the waves are developed. Noether’s theorem is used to derive the canonical wave energy equation which is associated with the linearity symmetry of the equations. A further conservation law associated with time translation invariance of the action, applicable for steady background wind flows is also derived. In the latter case, the conserved density is the Hamiltonian density for the waves, which is distinct from the canonical wave energy density. The canonical wave energy conservation law is a special case of a wider class of conservation laws associated with Green’s theorem for the wave mixing system and the adjoint wave mixing system, which are related to Noether’s second theorem. In the sub-Alfvénic flow, inside the Alfvén point of the wind, the backward and forward waves have positive canonical energy densities, but in the super-Alfvénic flow outside the Alfvén critical point, the backward Alfvén waves are negative canonical energy waves, and the forward Alfvén waves are positive canonical energy waves. Reflection and transmission coefficients for the backward and forward waves in both the sub-Alfvénic and super-Alfvénic regions of the flow are discussed.