Law

==== Canon law ====
{{main|Canon law}}
[[File:Graverat titelblad till "Kanonisk rätt" - Skoklosters slott - 93238.tif|thumb|The ''[[Corpus Juris Canonici]]'', the fundamental collection of canon law for over 750 years]]

Canon law ({{Lang-grc|κανών|translit=kanon|lit=a straight measuring rod; a [[ruler]]}}) is a set of ordinances and regulations made by [[ecclesiastical jurisdiction|ecclesiastical authority]], for the government of a Christian organisation or church and its members. It is the internal [[ecclesiastical]] law governing the [[Catholic Church]], the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], the [[Oriental Orthodox Churches]], and the individual national churches within the [[Anglican Communion]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Boudinhon |first=Auguste |title=Canon Law |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09056a.htm |year=1910 |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |volume=9 |access-date=9 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331231326/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09056a.htm |archive-date=31 March 2019}}</ref> The way that such church law is [[legislative power|legislated]], interpreted and at times [[court|adjudicated]] varies widely among these three bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a [[Canon (canon law)|canon]] was originally<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gender in History: Global Perspectives|last=Wiesner-Hanks|first=Merry|publisher=Wiley Blackwell|year=2011|pages=37}}</ref> a rule adopted by a [[church council]]; these canons formed the foundation of canon law.

The Catholic Church has the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the [[western world]],<ref>Raymond Wacks,
''Law: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd Ed.'' (Oxford University Press, 2015) pg. 13.</ref><ref name=White>{{cite web |last=Peters |first=Edward |url=http://canonlaw.info |publisher=CanonLaw.info |title=Home Page |access-date=24 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928005444/http://www.canonlaw.info/ |archive-date=28 September 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> predating the evolution of modern European [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] and common law systems. The [[1983 Code of Canon Law]] governs the [[Latin Church]] ''[[Sui iuris|sui juris]]''. The Eastern Catholic Churches, which developed different disciplines and practices, are governed by the ''[[Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches]]''.<ref>{{cite web|author=Blessed John Paul II, Ap. Const.|url=https://archive.org/stream/ApostolicConstitutionSacriCanonesJohnPaulIi1990/Sacri_Canones_Apostolic_Constitution_John_Paul_II_1990#page/n7/mode/2up|title=Apostolic Constitution Sacri Canones John Paul II 1990|year=1990|access-date=26 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324090532/https://archive.org/stream/ApostolicConstitutionSacriCanonesJohnPaulIi1990/Sacri_Canones_Apostolic_Constitution_John_Paul_II_1990#page/n7/mode/2up|archive-date=24 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[canon law of the Catholic Church]] influenced the [[common law]] during the medieval period through its preservation of [[Roman law]] doctrine such as the [[presumption of innocence]].<ref>Friedman, Lawrence M., ''American Law: An Introduction'' (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1984), pg. 70.</ref>{{efn|«In one of his elaborate orations in the United States Senate Mr. Charles Sumner spoke of "the generous presumption of the common law in favor of the innocence of an accused person;" yet it must be admitted that such a presumption cannot be found in Anglo-Saxon law, where sometimes the presumption seems to have been the other way. And in a very recent case in the Supreme Court of the United States, the case of Coffin, 156 U. S. 432, it is pointed out that this presumption was fully established in the Roman law, and was preserved in the canon law.»<ref>William Wirt Howe, ''Studies in the Civil Law, and its Relation to the Law of England and America'' (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1896), pg. 51.</ref>}}