Chapter I: Of the Office of Judges and Ministers of the Tribunal

A competent judge is not to refuse his ministry to a party legitimately requiring it, with the prescription of can. 1625, Sec. 1 remaining firm.

§ 1. Before a judge draws anyone to his tribunal and sits to judge, he is to see whether he himself is competent or not.

§ 2. And in the same way, before he admits someone to act, he is held to know whether that person can stand in judgment by right.

§ 3. It is not necessary, however, that these things be reported in the acts.

§ 1. If an exception is proposed against the competence of the judge, the judge himself must see concerning this matter.

§ 2. In the case of an exception concerning relative incompetence, if the judge pronounces himself competent, his decision does not admit appeal.

§ 3. But if the judge declares himself incompetent, the party who considers himself aggrieved can within the space of ten days interpose appeal to the superior tribunal.

A judge recognizing himself to be absolutely incompetent at any stage of the cause is held to declare his incompetence.

§ 1. If among two or more judges a controversy arises as to which of them is competent for some business, the matter is to be defined by the immediately superior tribunal.

§ 2. But if the judges among whom a conflict of competence exists are subject to distinct superior tribunals, the definition of the controversy is reserved to the superior tribunal of that judge before whom the action was first promoted; if they do not have a superior tribunal, the conflict is to be settled either by the Legate of the Holy See, if one is present, or by the Apostolic Signatura.

§ 1. A judge is not to undertake hearing a cause in which, by reason of consanguinity or affinity in any grade of the direct line and in the first and second grade of the collateral line, or by reason of tutelage and curatorship, intimacy of life, great enmity, or gain to be made or loss to be avoided, something concerns him, or in which he previously acted as advocate or procurator.

§ 2. In the same circumstances the promoter of justice and defender of the bond must abstain from their office.

§ 1. When a judge, although competent, is recusated by a party as suspect, this exception, if proposed against a delegated judge who is sole in the cause or against the college or the greater part of the delegated judges, is to be defined by the delegating authority; if against one or another of several delegated judges, even the president of the college, by the other delegated and non-suspect judges; if against an Auditor of the Sacred Rota, by the Apostolic Signatura according to the norm of can. 1603, Sec. 1, n. 2; if against an officialis, by the Bishop; if against an auditor, by the principal judge.

§ 2. If the Ordinary himself is judge and an exception of suspicion is opposed against him, either he is to abstain from judging or he is to commit the question of suspicion to be defined by the immediately superior judge.

§ 3. If an exception of suspicion is opposed against the promoter of justice, the defender of the bond, or other administrators of the tribunal, the president sees concerning this exception in a collegial tribunal, or the judge himself, if he is sole.

§ 1. If a sole judge, or some or even all judges who constitute a collegial tribunal, are declared suspect, the persons must be changed, but not the grade of trial.

§ 2. It belongs to the Ordinary to substitute, in place of the judges who have been declared suspect, others immune from suspicion.

§ 3. But if the Ordinary himself has been declared suspect, the immediately superior judge is to do the same.

An exception of suspicion is to be defined most expeditiously, the parties, the promoter of justice, or the defender of the bond having been heard, if they are involved and suspicion does not fall upon them.

As regards the time at which exceptions of incompetence and suspicion are to be proposed, the prescription of can. 1628 is to be observed.

In a business which concerns private persons only, the judge can proceed only at the instance of a party; but in delicts, and in those things which regard the public good of the Church or the salvation of souls, also from office.

§ 1. If the actor does not bring forth proofs which he could bring forth for his matter, or the defendant does not oppose exceptions competent to himself, the judge is not to supply them.

§ 2. But if the matter concerns either the public good or the salvation of souls, he can and must supply them.

Judges and tribunals are to take care that as quickly as possible, with justice preserved, all causes are finished, and that in the tribunal of first instance they are not prolonged beyond two years, and in the tribunal of second instance beyond one year.

§ 1. Excepting a Bishop who exercises judicial power personally, all who constitute a tribunal or bring assistance to it must render an oath concerning the office to be fulfilled rightly and faithfully before the Ordinary or before the judge by whom they were chosen, or before an ecclesiastical man delegated by either; and this from the beginning of the office undertaken, if they are stable, or before the cause is conducted, if they have been constituted for some particular cause.

§ 2. Even a judge delegated by the Apostolic See or an ordinary judge in an exempt clerical religion is held to render the same oath when the tribunal is first constituted, the notary of that tribunal being present, who is to draw up an act concerning the oath rendered.

§ 1. Whenever an oath is rendered either by judges or administrators of the tribunal, or by parties, witnesses, or experts, it must always be emitted with the invocation of the divine Name having been premised, and by priests indeed with the breast touched, but by the other faithful, with the book of the Gospels touched.

§ 2. The judge receiving a party, witness, or expert to the oath is regularly to admonish him both concerning the sanctity of the act and concerning the most grave delict which violators of an oath admit, and also concerning the penalties to which those who falsely affirm under oath in judgment become liable.

§ 3. The oath must be rendered according to the formula approved by the judge before the same judge or his delegate, with both parties or either party being present if they wish to be present at the rendering of the oath.

§ 1. In a criminal trial always, but in a contentious one if from the revelation of some procedural act prejudice could come to the parties, judges and assistants of the tribunal are held to official secrecy.

§ 2. They are also always held to preserving inviolable secrecy concerning the discussion which is held in a collegial tribunal before sentence is rendered, and also concerning the various votes and opinions brought forth there.

§ 3. Indeed, whenever the nature of the cause or proofs is such that from publication of the acts or proofs the reputation of others is endangered, or occasion is furnished for dissensions, or scandal or another inconvenience of that kind arises, the judge can bind witnesses, experts, parties, and their advocates or procurators by oath to keeping secrecy.

The judge and all administrators of the tribunal are prohibited from accepting any gifts on the occasion of conducting the trial.

§ 1. Judges who, although they are certainly and evidently competent, refuse to render justice, or who rashly declare themselves competent, or who from culpable negligence or fraud place a null or unjust act to the detriment of others or inflict other damage on litigants, are liable for damages and can be punished by the local Ordinary or, if there is question of a Bishop, by the Apostolic See, at the instance of a party or even from office, with suitable penalties according to the gravity of the fault, not excluding privation of office.

§ 2. Judges who have presumed to violate the law of secrecy or communicate secret acts with others in any way whatever are to be punished with a monetary fine and other penalties, not excluding privation of office, according to the diverse gravity of the offense, with peculiar statutes preserved by which graver penalties may be prescribed.

§ 3. The same sanctions bind officials and assistants of the tribunal if, as above, they have failed in their office; all of whom the judge also can punish.

When the judge foresees that the actor will probably despise the ecclesiastical sentence if perhaps it is contrary to him, and that for this reason the rights of the defendant will not be sufficiently consulted, he can, at the instance of the same defendant or even from office, compel the actor to furnish a suitable security for observing the ecclesiastical sentence.