The Eastern Catholic canon law is the law of the 23 Catholic sui juris (autonomous) particular churches of the Eastern Catholic tradition. Eastern Catholic canon law includes both the common tradition among all Eastern Catholic Churches, now chiefly contained in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, as well as the particular law proper to each individual sui juris particular Eastern Catholic Church. Oriental canon law is distinguished from Latin canon law, which developed along a separate line in the remnants of the Western Roman Empire, and is now chiefly codified in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
History
Nomocanons
A nomocanon is a collection of ecclesiastical law, consisting of the elements from both the civil law and the canon law. Collections of this kind were found only in Eastern law. The Greek Church has two principal nomocanonical collections.
The first nomocanon is the "Nomocanon of John Scholasticus" of the sixth century. He had drawn up (about 550) a purely canonical compilation in 50 titles, and later composed an extract from Justinian's Novellae Constitutiones in 87 chapters that relate the ecclesiastical matters. To each of the 50 titles was added the texts of the imperial laws on the same subject, with 21 additional chapters, nearly all borrowed from John's 87 chapters.
The second nomocanon dates from the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (). It was made by fusion of the Collectio tripartita (collection of Justinian's imperial law) and "Canonic syntagma" (ecclesiastical canons). Afterwards, this collection would be known as "Nomocanon in 14 titles". This nomocanon was long held in esteem and passed into the Russian Church, but it was by degrees supplanted by "Nomocanon of Photios" in 883.
Basically it was nomocanon in 14 titles with the addition of 102 canons of Trullan Council (see Canon law), 17 canons of the Council of Constantinople held in 861, and 3 canons substituted by Photios for those of the Council of Constantinople in 869. Nomocanon in 14 titles was completed with the more recent imperial laws.
Nomocanon of Photios was retained in the law of the Greek Church and it was included in a collection called Syntagma, published by Rallis and Potlis (Athens, 1852–1859). Even though called Syntagma, the collection of ecclesiastical law of Matthew Blastares in 1335 is the real nomocanon, in which the texts of the laws and the canons are arranged in alphabetical order.
Leo XIII
Following the example of the famous council of Lebanon for the Maronites held in 1730, and that of Zamosc for the Ruthenians in 1720, the Eastern Churches, at the suggestion of Leo XIII, drew up in plenary assembly their own local law: the Syrians at Sciarfa in 1888; the Ruthenians at Leopol in 1891; and a little later, the Copts.
Benedict XV founds the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church
Until 1917, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith had a division for the "Affairs of the Oriental Rite", which ceased to exist on 30 November 1917. Benedict XV founded the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church by the motu proprio Dei Providentis.
The Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church was presided over by the Supreme Pontiff himself and included several cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, one of which functioned in the capacity of Secretary. There were also Councillors, chosen from among the more distinguished clergy and those experienced in things oriental.
Pius XI
A commission was established in 1929 by Pius XI to draw up a schema for an Oriental Catholic canon code, the Commissionem Cardinalitiam pro Studiis Praeparatoriis Codificationis Orientalis. In 1935, the same pope established another commission with the same goal, the Pontificia Commissio ad redigendum Codicem iuris canonici orientalis, to replace the former.
Reforms of Pius XII
With his concern for the Eastern Catholic Churches and their combined ten million members, Pope Pius continued the initiatives of his predecessors, especially Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI. These Churches, not unlike the Latin Church before the Code of 1917, had their own ancient laws, which were not codified. The reform of Oriental Church laws, the CIC Orientalis for the Oriental Churches, was completed during the pontificate of Pius XII. The new, very comprehensive Church laws governed matrimonial law, Church trials, administration of Church properties and religious orders, and individual rights.