Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book that Shows Serious Concern for Due Process and "Fair Play", December 25, 2007
THE 1917 PIO-BENEDICTINE CODE OF CANON LAW is a comprehensive treatise of Canon Law which focused on Catholic Church administration, legal financial process,legal resposibility of the Catholic clergy, family law, specific due process, etc. While this book dealt with Catholic matters, its importance is reflected in that the Catholic Church's Canon Law was the model for other scientific legal systems such British Common Law and the British and U.S. Constitutional Law.
This book clearly defined what constituted lawful marriage, parent-children relationships, and parental responsibilities. Alert readers can readily see a similarity between Catholic Canon Law and current family law as practised in modern family courts. This part of the book also gives readers an insight regarding Church responsibility and counselling in family affairs.
The Code of Canon Law had clear definitions of criminal culpability regarding the Catholic clergy. Reading these comments again should remind readers of the current criminal due process. There were clear legal definitions of what constituted crime. This part of the book provides legal remedies for prosecution and is clear that one is innocent until proven guilty in a Canon Law Court. There are also excellent comments on financial responsibility and accounting within the Catholic Church while held dignataries such as bishops responsible for their parish and diocesan financial arrangements.
One aspect that this may surprise readers is the metculous concern of due process. This concern is not reflected in the Rules of Evidence, but it is also reflected in the reliability of witnesses and how much weight should be given to witness testimony. Readers can easily compare this concern for due process with modern secular law.
The value of this book is that it gives readers a better understanding of how "law and justice" originated. Due process, legal procedures, attempts at "fair play," etc. originated in the Canon Law, and this book is a good place to find some of the sources. Another useful part of the this book is the bibliography which is extensive. This book is highly recommended.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Useful and attractive work, November 4, 2009
This work, the only complete English language translation of the 1917 Code, is excellent. Meticulously footnoted with research cross-references, sturdily bound, and attractively typeset, it this book will not only prove an invaluable research tool, but should still be in excellent condition a generation from now. The section headings and other components of the text are clearly demarcated, making browsing easy. My only quibble is that the pages do not have the book and chapter headings along the top of the page as many statutory compilations do. While I have yet to delve into the text at length, I can rest assured, having seen Prof. Peters's commentary elsewhere, that the annotations in this volume will not exude the same dubious skepticism of the prominent Beal-Coriden-Green translation of the 1983 Code. All in all, this work is a sound investment.
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
These are the 1917 Roman Catholic Cannons few ever take the time to read., April 3, 2009
This volume provides the full written content of all Canons of the Roman Catholic Church. It also includes the only commentary of depth on the 1917 Canons I find for sale online. Anyone desirous of understanding even a few Roman Catholic Cannons must own this book, or have immediate access to it, together with a solid commentary. It's literally impossible to read, much less understand, the 1983 Roman Catholic Cannons and it's several subsequent commentaries without this volume. The study of Canon Law on one's own is difficult at best, so the reader must use these books with great care. Roman Catholic Canon Law is the most difficult and subtle of all of the law books I have ever attempted to read, including U.S. Constitutional Law. The Church's own accepted practices in the United States today, in obvious contradiction to publicly released Papal Encyclicals, writings, and addresses by the Holy Father in Rome, are at times devoid of reason, and appear to contradict the Roman Catholic Canons, in my opinion. Proper Catholic authority today employs oft abused subjective claims by arriving at practical "truths" and "recognized authoritative pronouncements" that may or may not in fact be true and recognized later; irrespective of the canons in effect at the time of any given authoritative pronouncement or sacrament. Primary among the problems in my opinion are those known as "internal pastoral solutions", including but not limited to the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. Challenge my statement, please? I am looking for sound, documented answers that I may download and print, purchase, and/or hold in my hands, please! I ask you to LEAVE me COMMENTS to my reviews of Canon Law volumes. Please try to find a formal and complete list of these various "internal pastoral solutions". I ask that you find me an authorized Catholic book, complete with Imprimatur, and I will thank you! I hold that they would be more aptly named "spurious pastoral solutions", primarily used on Catholic people who are neophytes and know no better, or by Catholic priests and deacons who are in some manner, even if only subtly, protesting accepted canonical practices. My BELIEF in this review is absolutely subject to change, given the proper reference(s). These abuses are even applied to people who have no impediment whatsoever, as defined by Catholic Canon Law. Warning: use Catholic Canon Law books and commentaries "at your own risk"; I do.
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