Judith Hahn

This book is the first study to consider findings from sociology, legal anthropology, ethnology, legal pluralism, comparative law and theology in order to gain a better understanding of the diverse cultures of global Catholicism and the cross-cultural challenges arising from Roman Catholic canon law within the local churches. The author, renowned for her work at the intersection of socio-legal studies and canon law, examines the latter as a distinctive example of a European religious legal system that cuts across the myriad legal cultures of the local churches. In light of findings on legal transfer and legal colonialism, and by examining canon law within the emerging field of social and cultural studies approaches to law, her book sheds light on how canon law is imposed upon and received by the local churches around the world. It analyses the challenges and problems arising from the law’s transcultural claims within these churches. Based on these observations, the study discusses the critical stance of canon law within contemporary Catholicism and the current debates on a synodal reform of the church and its law.
The book adopts different perspectives: As a sociological study, it describes the contemporary Eurocentrism of global canon law and the conflicts arising from it. As a theological study, it presents ecclesiological reasons for challenging the hegemony of global legislation. As a study of canon law, it suggests ways in which legislation could permit greater diversity while maintaining the unity of the universal church. By analysing canon law as a specific example of a religious legal order with cross-cultural ambitions and global claims, the book also contributes to the study of transnational law in general by illustrating the typical problems that accompany transnational legal regimes in both secular legal systems and religious groups.

In 2023, scholars with backgrounds in sociology, philosophy, theology, religious studies, and law gathered at the University of Bonn for the Conference “Sacred Order: The Reliance of Ritual on Norms, the Emergence of Norms from Ritual”, the first of its kind to unite researchers with these diverse academic backgrounds to elaborate the connection between ritualization and the generation of norms. Discussing the roots of rituals in norms, and the roots of norms in ritual, they examined how ritualization serves to identify the profane, construct the sacred and mark the boundary between the two; how order evolves from the space between the profane and the sacred; how the sacred infuses normative worlds; what one can learn about norms from their eschatological character as “worlds-that-might-be”; and how to comprehend the overlapping of normativities, such as the religious character of social or legal liturgies, as well as the social or legal function of religious practice. The special issue comprises some contributions as full articles. It is an attempt to share our findings with a wider law and religion audience and to encourage further discussion on which role ritual and ritualization play in the generation and institutionalisation of norms.

Zusammenfassung: Was macht die Kanonistik als wissenschaftliche Disziplin aus? Ist sie Theologie oder Rechtswissenschaft? Und wie wirkt sich die jeweilige Verortung methodologisch aus? Judith Hahn und Adrian Loretan bieten unterschiedliche Perspektiven auf diese Grundlagenfragen ihres Fachs. Sie zeigen, was Kirchenrechtswissenschaft gegenwärtig leisten kann und leisten muss, und geben damit wichtige Impulse für eine Reform der Disziplin und des kirchlichen Rechts.

Abstract: “Sacramentality” can serve as a category that helps to understand the performative power of religious and legal rituals. Through the analysis of “sacraments”, one can observe how law uses sacramentality to change reality through performative action, and how religion uses law to organise religious rituals, including sacraments. The study of sacramental action thus shows how law and religion intertwine to produce legal, spiritual, and other social effects. In this volume, the author explores this interplay by interpreting the Catholic sacraments as examples of sacro-legal symbols that draw on the sacramental functioning of the law to provide both spiritual and legal goods to church members. By focusing on sacro-legal symbols from the perspective of sacramental theology, legal studies, ritual theory, symbol theory, and speech act theory, the study reveals how law and religion work hand in hand to shape our social reality.

Abstract: This study explores the language of canon law. It seeks to bring the language of canon law into the law and language debate and in doing so better understand how the Roman Catholic Church communicates as a legal institution. It examines the function of canon law language in ecclesiastical communications. It studies the character of canonical language, the grammar and terminology of canon law, and how it makes use of linguistic tricks and techniques to create its typical sound. It discusses the comprehension difficulties that arise out of ambiguities in the law, out of transfer problems between legal and common language, and out of canon law’s confusing mix of legal, doctrinal, and moral norms. It reviews the potential consequences of a plain language agenda in the church. This includes an evaluation of whether dead Latin is the appropriate language for a global and cross-cultural legal order such as canon law, and a discussion of how to improve multi-language communication. The book also takes a closer look at ecclesiastical interpretation theory. It examines forensic language, the language of ecclesiastical tribunals, in its problematic shifting between orality and textuality.