seminar on the Constitutional Law Canonical as discipline academics
It was given by Eduardo Molano, professor at the School of Canon Law
Eduardo Molano, professor of the School of Canon Law of the University of Navarra, gave last October 7 a seminar graduate 'The Constitutional Law Canonical as discipline academic: issues and questions'.
Prof. Molano began his intervention by explaining that the choice of topic of seminar was motivated by the imminent publication by EUNSA of a textbook of 'Constitutional Law Canonical', which collects the Lessons on this subject taught by its author in the course of licentiate degree of the School. It is a book that offers a synthesis of the subject, which can serve as guide for students, but also develops -sometimes by way of notes- the main questions raised by the Constitutional Law of the Catholic Church.
The speaker developed some of the themes and questions raised in the book. He focused especially on the very concept of Constitutional Law, which, in the Catholic Church, cannot be approached in the manner of those juridical orders that are endowed with a formally promulgated Constitution and which, as such, has a higher value than the rest of the juridical norms.
Constitutional Law Canon and Divine Law
For speaker, the Constitutional Law Canon Law is based on Divine Law. In turn, Divine Law is conceived as a set of principles, from which the principal institutions and norms of Canon Law derive. By their very nature, these fundamental principles and norms have a function that is constitutive of all ecclesiastical law. From this derives the principle of constitutionality, which is what characterizes the current Science of Constitutional Law in the sphere of the State, and which, in the case of canon law, is nothing more than the expression of the principle of the primacy of Divine Law in relation to human ecclesiastical law.
In the colloquium with the academic staff, some of the fundamental questions that arise, both in relation to the rights and obligations of the faithful, as well as in relation to the hierarchical constitution of the Church, were also addressed.