Natural law has long been considered the traditional source of Roman Catholic canon law. However, new scholarship is critical of this approach as it portrays the Catholic Church as static, ahistorical, and insensitive to cultural change. In its attempt to stem the massive loss of effectiveness being experienced by canon law, the church has to reconsider its theory of legal foundation, especially its natural law theory. Church Law in Modernity analyses the criticism levelled at the church and puts forward solutions for reconciling church law with modernity by revealing the historical and cultural authenticity of all law, and revising the processes of law making. In a modern church, there is no way of thinking of the law without the participation of the faithful in legislation. Judith Hahn therefore proposes a reformed legislative process for the church in the hope of reconciling the natural law origins of church law with a new, modern theology.

Church Law in Modernity: Toward a Theory of Canon Law between Nature and Culture

Codex Iuris Canonici

2. The changes which have taken place are in fact noteworthy and of varied kinds. In the first place, there is the rapid demographic development. Fear is shown by many that world population is growing more rapidly than the available resources, with growing distress to many families and developing countries, so that the temptation for authorities to counter this danger with radical measures is great. Moreover, working and lodging conditions, as well as increased exigencies both in the economic field and in that of education, often make the proper education of a larger number of children difficult today. A change is also seen both in the manner of considering the person of woman and her place in society, and in the value to be attributed to conjugal love in marriage, and also to the appreciation to be made of the meaning of conjugal acts in relation to that love.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0024363918817112

Humanae Vitae (On the Regulation of Birth).

Carl Schmitt in Ernst‐Wolfgang Böckenförde's work: Carrying Weimar constitutional theory into the Bonn Republic

Canon Law between Nature and Culture

„Gesetz der Wahrheit“: Rechtstheoretische Überlegungen im Anschluss an aktuelle päpstliche Äußerungen zur Rechtsbegründung

‘Not in Heaven’. What the Talmudic Tale on the Oven of Akhnai May Contribute to the Recent Debates on the Development of Catholic Canon Law

Kirchenrecht in den Medien – das ist ein wenig wahrge nommenes und doch prasentes Thema, vor allem in den vergangenen Jahren, in denen in der medialen Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchs skandals kirchliches Strafrecht und amterrechtliche Fragen offentlich diskutiert wurden. Doch nicht nur kirchliche Skandale haben einen rechtlichen Bezug; vielmehr lasst sich uber die in der Welt verfasste Kirche – eine Glaubensgemeinschaft in Rechtsgestalt – kaum sprechen, ohne zumindest indirekt auf ihre rechtliche Organisation abzustellen, denn diese durchzieht die Kirche als strukturelle Perspektive. Auch  im Kern des medial vermittelten Kirchendiskurses findet sich daher zumeist ein kirchenrechtlicher Gehalt. Kirchenrecht in den Medien – eine Analyse dazu muss exemplarisch bleiben. In der Studie „Kirchenrecht in den Medien“, deren Ergebnisse hier vorgestellt werden, wurde der kirchenrechtliche Gehalt in den zentralen Nachrichtensendungen der offentlich-rechtlichen Fernsehsender ARD und ZDF im Jahr 2010 erhoben. Von A wie Abendmahl, B wie Beichtsiegelbruch bis Z wie Zolibat erweist sich 2010 als ein Jahr voller brisanter Themen, dominiert von der Berichterstattung uber die Missbrauchsfalle in kirchlichen Einrichtungen. English Canon Law in the Media.  Analysis of the Coverage in the News Programs of ARD and ZDF. Canon law in the media – this is a little perceived, yet present topic, especially in recent years during which questions related to Church structures and criminal legal issues have been pub licly discussed. However, not only Church scandals have a legal reference; instead it is nearly impossible to speak about the Church constituted as part of the world – a religious community with an inherent legal structure – without at least indirectly addressing the Church as a legal organization insofar as it pervades the Church from a structural perspective. Therefore, at the core of Church media coverage one can often find canonical content. Canon Law in the media – such an analysis must be exemplary. In the study Canon Law in the Media , the results of which are presented in this article, a survey was made of the canonical content of coverage presented by the main news programs of German public television (ARD and ZDF) in 2010. From A as in “Abendmahl” (Eucharist), B as in Beichtsiegelbruch (breaking the seal of the confessional) to  Z as in Zolibat (Celibacy), the year 2010 proved to be filled with controversial topics, dominated by coverage of cases of abuse in ecclesial institutions.

/pdf/kirchenrecht-in-den-medien-analyse-der-berichterstattung-in-5comujncyu.pdf

Judith Hahn

Papers

Church Law in Modernity: Toward a Theory of Canon Law between Nature and Culture

„Gesetz der Wahrheit“: Rechtstheoretische Überlegungen im Anschluss an aktuelle päpstliche Äußerungen zur Rechtsbegründung

Canon Law between Nature and Culture

‘Not in Heaven’. What the Talmudic Tale on the Oven of Akhnai May Contribute to the Recent Debates on the Development of Catholic Canon Law

Kirchenrecht in den Medien. Analyse der Berichterstattung in den Nachrichtensendungen von ARD und ZDF