Applying the Principles and Procedures of Civil Law to Canon Law: A Recipe for Frustration

Roughly out of every 300 Americans is a lawyer. The remaining 299 of us who are not lawyers still have good reasons to be interested in our legal system. Out of necessity, we have to conduct much of our day-to-day affairs without a lawyer standing beside us. Therefore we need to have at least some knowledge about the law so as to anticipate the possible legal effects of our actions and, for sure, to know when to seek professional counsel. Aside from our personal involvement in legal matters, the give and take that is associated with legal processes and the drama of the courtroom, where reputations, fortunes and sometimes even lives are at stake has attracted the attention of the general public throughout history. This is especially true since the advent of television. From Perry Mason to the Watergate hearings to the O.J. Simpson trial to the Clinton impeachment trial, it sometimes seems that a growing percentage of those who are not lawyers nonetheless fancy themselves as armchair legal strategists. Strictly speaking, there is nothing wrong with this; but when such non-lawyers try to deal with actual legal matters very serious problems can result. Generally speaking, the same can be said of canon law and it makes little difference whether the offender is a common lawyer or is simply someone who has watched too much Court TV, read too many John Grisham novels or not stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. You might wonder how someone like me, who is not formally educated in either canon or civil law, would attempt to write even a superficial article about two complex legal systems. Obviously, I had to rely on the work of those who Applying the Principles and Procedures of Civil Law to Canon Law: A Recipe for Frustration