Title I: Of Ecclesiastical Laws

§ 1. Laws are established when they are promulgated.

§ 2. A law is not presumed to be personal, but territorial, unless something else is established.

Laws issued by the Apostolic See are promulgated by publication in the official periodical Acta Apostolicae Sedis, unless in particular cases another mode of promulgation has been prescribed; and they take effect only after three months have been completed from the day which is affixed to the number of the Acta, unless from the nature of the matter they bind immediately, or unless in the law itself a shorter or longer vacatio has been specially and expressly established.

Laws regard future things, not past things, unless provision is made in them for past things by name.

Only those laws are to be held invalidating or incapacitating by which it is expressly or equivalently established either that an act is null or that a person is incapable.

Those who have not received baptism are not bound by merely ecclesiastical laws; nor are baptized persons who do not enjoy sufficient use of reason; nor those who, although they have attained the use of reason, have not yet completed the seventh year of age, unless something else is expressly provided by law.

§ 1. All for whom general laws were issued are bound by them everywhere on earth.

§ 2. Those are subject to laws established for a particular territory for whom they were issued and who have a domicile or quasi-domicile there and at the same time actually reside there, without prejudice to the prescription of can. 14.

§ 1. Travelers:

1° Are not bound by the particular laws of their own territory so long as they are absent from it, unless either transgression of those laws causes harm in their own territory, or the laws are personal.

2° Nor by the laws of the territory in which they are staying, except those which provide for public order or determine the solemnities of acts.

3° But they are bound by general laws even if these are not in force in their own territory; by no means, however, if they do not bind in the place in which they are staying.

§ 2. Wanderers are obliged by both general and particular laws which are in force in the place in which they are staying.

Laws, even invalidating and incapacitating laws, do not bind when there is a doubt of law; but in a doubt of fact the Ordinary can dispense from them, provided there is question of laws from which the Roman Pontiff is accustomed to dispense.

§ 1. No ignorance of invalidating or incapacitating laws excuses from them, unless something else is expressly stated.

§ 2. Ignorance or error concerning a law or penalty, or concerning one's own fact, or concerning the notorious fact of another, is generally not presumed; concerning the non-notorious fact of another it is presumed until the contrary is proved.

§ 1. The legislator, or his successor, and the one to whom the power of interpreting has been committed by them, authentically interprets laws.

§ 2. An authentic interpretation, given in the manner of a law, has the same force as the law itself; and if it merely declares words of the law that are certain in themselves, it does not need promulgation and has retroactive force; if it restricts or extends the law or explains a doubtful law, it is not retroactive and must be promulgated.

§ 3. An interpretation given in the manner of a judicial sentence or of a rescript in a particular matter does not have the force of law and binds only the persons and affects the things for which it was given.

Ecclesiastical laws are to be understood according to the proper meaning of the words considered in the text and context; if this has remained doubtful and obscure, recourse must be had to parallel places of the Code, if there are any, to the end and circumstances of the law, and to the mind of the legislator.

Laws which establish a penalty, or restrict the free exercise of rights, or contain an exception from the law, are subject to strict interpretation.

If an express prescription of law, whether general or particular, is lacking concerning a certain matter, the norm is to be taken, unless there is question of applying penalties, from laws issued in similar matters; from general principles of law observed with canonical equity; from the style and practice of the Roman Curia; and from the common and constant opinion of doctors.

Laws issued to forestall a general danger bind even if in a particular case the danger is not present.

A later law, issued by competent authority, obrogates an earlier law if it expressly declares this, or is directly contrary to it, or entirely reorders the whole matter of the earlier law; but, without prejudice to the prescription of can. 6, n. 1, a general law in no way derogates from statutes of special places and singular persons, unless something else is expressly provided in the law itself.

In doubt, revocation of a pre-existing law is not presumed, but later laws are to be drawn to earlier ones and, as far as possible, reconciled with them.

Precepts given to individuals bind those to whom they are given everywhere, but they cannot be enforced judicially and they cease when the right of the one giving the precept is dissolved, unless they were imposed by a legitimate document or before two witnesses.