| Following the Second Vatican Council, an effort was made to develop new and more adequate means of protecting the rights of the faithful in the Church. Among the elements of the juridic protection of rights, the 1983 Code of Canon Law attributes great importance to the right of defense. This dissertation studies how the present legislation of the Latin Church honors the right of defense in the administrative procedures of Book VII of the 1983 code, namely, in the procedure for recourse against administrative decrees (cc. 1732--1739), the procedure for the removal and transfer of pastors (cc. 1740--1752), and the administrative penal procedure (c. 1720).;The relevance of the right of defense, however, is not limited to the judicial arena. Parties to administrative controversies in the Church also enjoy the right of defense. The criteria governing the application of the right of defense in the judicial domain serve to explicate the demands of the right of defense in select administrative procedures. The dissertation identifies the strengths and weaknesses of these procedures in respecting the right of defense and makes some suggestions for how the protection of the right of defense during these administrative procedures could be enhanced.;First, the dissertation studies the concern for the juridic protection of rights in the Church. Then, it examines various components of the right of defense that may be found among the procedural norms governing the conduct of a judicial contentious trial. The right of defense guarantees the concrete possibility for each party in a dispute to participate in the process that leads to its resolution. At the very least, the right of defense requires that the parties be given the opportunity to be heard and to know and, if possible, to contradict the petition, proofs, and deductions proposed by the other party or ex officio. |
