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La struttura concettuale del nuovo Codice di Diritto Canonico

Summary: The author intends to bring to the attention of canonists a hermeneutical problem of prime importance for the interpretation (comprehension) of the New Code of Canon Law. With this in mind, the author recalls the recent teaching of John Paul II on the relationship between foedus and lex (Covenant and Law) (Allocution of 3 February 1983) and lays the foundations for discourse on the conceptual structure of the New Code (the funda­mental ideas of the new canonical legislation). It is a type of di­scourse that enters into the very definition of the canon law that has come to maturity through the debates of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (Ius Sacrum). The conceptual structure of the New Code is based on the biblical, theological and juridical dimen­sions of the new canonical legislation. As we see, we have here e new type of discourse for the solution of both old and new problems: The foundational problem of the canon law (the juridical nature of canonical legislation) and the safeguarding of the canon law from possible later contamination of a historicist and positivistic kind. As is the case with any other juridical order, the conceptual structure of the New Code of Canon Law is fundamental for an understanding of its systematic-normative structure.