', also spelled , were legal maxims which served as

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

. The term is also a generic term for general rules or principles of the interpretation of canon laws of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

; in this context, they remain principles of law used in interpreting

Catholic canon law The canon law of the Catholic Church () is "how the Church organizes and governs herself". It is the system of religious laws and ecclesiastical legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regul ...

, despite no longer having any binding forces of law since the

1917 Code of Canon Law The 1917 ''Code of Canon Law'' (abbreviated 1917 CIC, from its Latin title ), also referred to as the Pio-Benedictine Code,Dr. Edward Peters accessed June-9-2013 is the first official comprehensive codification (law), codification of Canon law ...

abrogated them.

Roman law

There are 211 ''Regulae iuris''. The first ''Regula iuris'' from this corpus is from the 3rd-century jurisconsult Paulus; it is: "The law is not drawn from the rule ''egula'' rather it is the rule which comes from the law."

Catholic Church

Catholic use

In a specific sense, however, ' are certain fundamental laws in the form of legal maxims memorialized in the '' Corpus Iuris Canonici'', comprising 11 that

Pope Gregory IX Pope Gregory IX (; born Ugolino di Conti; 1145 – 22 August 1241) was head of the Catholic Church and the ruler of the Papal States from 19 March 1227 until his death in 1241. He is known for issuing the '' Decretales'' and instituting the Pa ...

placed at the end of the fifth ''Book of Decretals'' and 88 that

Pope Boniface VIII Pope Boniface VIII (; born Benedetto Caetani; – 11 October 1303) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 December 1294 until his death in 1303. The Caetani, Caetani family was of baronial origin with connections t ...

placed in the final title of ''Liber Sextus Decretalium''. These rules are deductions, rather than repetitions of legal principles in constitutions or judgments, of several laws on the same subject, and consequently were reserved to the final titles of the two books aforementioned, in imitation of the order of the

Justinian Code The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, enacted from 529 to 534 by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It is also sometimes referred ...

, specifically the '' Digest'', Liber l, Titulus 17. While ' are greatly important, few general principles are without some exception. Some ' are applicable in all matters and others only to judicial trials, benefices, et cetera; the following examples of those of limited applicability are from the ''Liber Sextus Decretalium'': * "No one can be held to the impossible." (6) * "Time does not heal what was invalid from the beginning." (18) * "What is not allowed to the defendant is denied to the plaintiff." (32) * "What one is not permitted to do in his own name he may not do through another." (47)

88 rules of Boniface VIII

88 legal dicta, axioms, or principles comprise the ' promulgated in 1298 by

Roman law

Catholic Church

Catholic use

88 rules of Boniface VIII

See also

References

Edition (Catholicism)

Further reading