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[German Version] (Gk ἐπιείκεια/ epieíkeia, “equity”), a principle for implementing justice in individual cases, according to which, the individual is empowered to make a decision of conscience against the binding force of a law in isolated instances. The doctrine of epiky has its origin in Aristotle's doctrine of virtue. Epiky was for him a better justice, for it made correction of the law possible; on account of its generality and the abundance of what life brings, the law necessarily remains incomplete. Thomas Aquinas associated the Aristotelian concept of epiky with the aequitas of…

[German Version] (Lat. ecclesia supplet = “the church supplements”). In Catholic canon law, under ¶ certain circumstances absent jurisdiction is replaced according to CIC c.144 §1. This is not the sanctioning of invalid legal acts but the legal delegation of authority or jurisdiction in cases involving either an actual or legally assumed error on the part of the ecclesiastical community in question or a positive and demonst…

[German Version] “Circulars” with a collective circle of addressees have an old church tradition. Byzantine Orthodoxy employs encyclicals especially for patriarchal and synodal pastoral letters. In the West, papal letters with collective inscriptions – associated, indeed, with the development of papal universalism – have appeared since the 13th century. Since Benedict XIV, th…

[German Version] Laicization means deprivation of the clerical state – by current canon law acquired at ordination to the diaconate. It is regulated by CIC/1983 ¶ cc. 290–293 and CCEO cc. 394–398. Once validly received, ordination (Consecration/Ordination/Dedication: I) can never be invalidated ( character indelibilis). Loss of the clerical state by suspension of membership in the clergy and return to the lay state (Laity: III, 1) can result from the penalty of dismissal lawfully imposed or, as a boon, by rescript of the Apostolic See. Th…

[German Version] Canon 85 of the CIC defines dispensation as the relaxation of a merely ecclesiastical law in a particular case. It can be granted within the limits of their competence by those who have executive power and by those who either explicitly or implicitly have the power of dispensing, whether by virtue of the law itself or by lawful delegation. The terminology is not totally consistent, so that other acts of clemency can also be called dispensatio, for example, dissolution of a ratified but unconsummated marriage (c. 1697 CIC). A ¶ dispensation must not lead to exemption fr…

[German Version] I. History – II. The Present – III. Orthodox Church – IV. The Study of Canon Law and Church Law – V. Practical Theology – VI. Oriental Orthodox Canon Law I. History 1. Early Church. The church has had laws ever since Christians recognized the need for a generally recognized authority to regulate the uncertainties, problems, and controversies involving church discipline brought about by the rapid expansion of Christianity. After the death of the initial authority figures (e.g. the fou…