Article I: Of the Judge

§ 1. In each diocese and for all causes not expressly excepted by law, the judge of first instance is the local Ordinary, who can exercise judicial power either personally by himself or through others, according however to the canons which follow.

§ 2. But if there is question of the rights or temporal goods of the Bishop or of the episcopal mensa or diocesan Curia, the controversy to be resolved is to be referred either, with the Bishop consenting, to the diocesan collegial tribunal which consists of the officialis and the two older synodal judges, or to the immediately superior judge.

§ 1. Every Bishop is held to choose an officialis with ordinary power of judging, distinct from the Vicar General, unless the smallness of the diocese or paucity of affairs suggests that this office be committed to the Vicar General himself.

§ 2. The officialis constitutes one tribunal with the Bishop of the place; but he cannot judge causes which the Bishop reserves to himself.

§ 3. Assistants can be given to the officialis, to whom the name is vice-officiales.

§ 4. Both the officialis and vice-officiales must be priests, of whole reputation, doctors in canon law or otherwise expert, not less than thirty years old.

§ 5. They are removable at the will of the Bishop; when the see is vacant, they do not cease from office, nor can they be removed by the Vicar Capitular; but when the new Bishop arrives, they need confirmation.

§ 6. He who is Vicar General and also officialis, when the see is vacant, ceases indeed from the office of Vicar, but not from the office of officialis.

§ 7. If the officialis is chosen as Vicar Capitular, he himself names a new officialis.

§ 1. In any diocese, presbyters of proven life and expert in canon law, even extra-diocesan ones, not more than twelve, are to be chosen so that, by power delegated by the Bishop, they may have part in judging lawsuits; to these let the name be synodal judges, or pro-synodal judges if they are constituted outside the Synod.

§ 2. As regards their election, substitution, cessation, or removal from office, the prescriptions of can. 385-388 are to be observed.

§ 3. Under the name of synodal judges in law also come pro-synodal judges.

A single judge in any trial can join to himself two consulting assessors; nevertheless he must choose them from the synodal judges.

§ 1. Contrary custom being reprobated and any contrary privilege revoked:

1° Contentious causes concerning the bond of sacred ordination and of marriage, or concerning the rights or temporal goods of a cathedral church; and likewise criminal causes in which the matter is about privation of an irremovable benefice or about imposing or declaring excommunication, are reserved to a collegial tribunal of three judges.

2° But causes in which there is question of delicts which carry the penalty of deposition, perpetual privation of ecclesiastical habit, or degradation, are reserved to a tribunal of five judges.

§ 2. The local Ordinary can commit the cognizance also of other causes to a collegial tribunal of three or five judges, and he should do this especially when there is question of causes which, with attention to the circumstances of time, place, and persons and to the matter of the trial, seem more difficult and of greater moment.

§ 3. The Ordinary is to choose by turn, from among the synodal judges, two or four judges who together with the president constitute the collegial tribunal, unless in his prudence he has judged otherwise opportune.

§ 1. A collegial tribunal must proceed collegially and render sentences according to the greater part of the votes.

§ 2. The officialis or vice-officialis presides over the same; his part is to direct the process and decree the things necessary for the administration of justice in the case being conducted.

Excepting the causes of which in can. 1572, Sec. 2, the Bishop can always preside over the tribunal personally by himself; but it is greatly expedient that he leave causes, especially criminal and contentious causes of grave moment, to be judged by the ordinary tribunal, over which the officialis or vice-officialis presides.

§ 1. If the controversy is between exempt religious of the same clerical religion, the judge of first instance, unless another thing is provided in the constitutions, is the provincial Superior, or, if the monastery is of its own right, the local Abbot.

§ 2. With a different prescription of the constitutions preserved, if a contentious matter is conducted between two provinces, in first instance the supreme Moderator of the religion will judge personally by himself or through a delegate; if between two monasteries, the supreme Moderator of the monastic Congregation.

§ 3. Finally, if a controversy arises between religious physical or moral persons of diverse religions, or even between religious of the same non-exempt or lay religion, or between a religious and a secular cleric or lay person, the judge of first instance is the local Ordinary.