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The principle of publicity means the public character of court proceedings open to the general public. Below the fully developed principle of publicity in constitutional states since the mid-19th century, there was so-called party publicity, which granted access not only to the parties to a case but also to their “friends” (relatives), even in proceedings before the council (Council [administrative]) of the late medieval town. Generally, the trial procedure of the  ius commune followed the principle of  scribality, which entailed closed sessions excluding the general…

1. Definition and functionThe judicial organization or constitution of a state governs the execution and continued observation of its constitution, especially the territorial divisions of the state and the principles of government, as well as the organization, personnel, competence, (self-)administration, cooperation, public character, policing, language, consultation, and deliberations of courts of law. The procedural law of the individual branches of the judiciary derive from this organizational constitution.The judicial organization of early modern Europ…

1. OriginNow in common use, since 1580  Corpus Iuris Canonici (“collection of canon law”) has been the official designation of a compilation of ecclesiastical legal collections and law codes from circa 1140 to the end of the 15th century. The Corpus Iuris Canonici is the official summary of older canon-law measures (Latin, canones) adapted during the age of “classic canon law” (1140-1350) and of new law created for the Catholic Church by papal replies to legal inquiries (decretals). It consists of five works: the  Decretum Gratiani from circa 1140, the  Liber Extra of Pope Gregory I…

1. DefinitionThe phrase church property (Latin bona ecclesiastica) denotes the assets of a church. It includes all rights with monetary value – especially property, usage rights, claims to taxes, other legal claims, and power of disposition over external things. Even in the Catholic Church, the proprietors of church property are not (only) the universal church or the Apostolic See (Papacy) but primarily individual ecclesiastical institutions (e.g. the church province, diocese, monastic order, Landeskir…

1. Foundations of Catholic and Protestant ecclesiastical lawThe ecclesiastical law of the early modern period is characterized by the loss of the religious unity that shaped the Middle Ages. In a revolutionary departure [2. 503] following the Lutheran Reformation in 1517, alongside the law of the Roman Catholic Church, summarized in the  Corpus Iuris Canonici, there now stood a different basic understanding of the role of law in the church. The recognition of Protestant teaching as having equal rights (in the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, 1555) and the…