La concepción constitucionalista en la doctrina canónica italiana y española contemporánea

The contribution examines the contribution of Italian and Spanish canonical doctrine subsequent to CIC 83 to canonical constitutional science. The archiving of the LEF and the abandonment of the formal constitutional perspective have reduced the impetus and motivation for applied implementation and speculative discussion. The examination of the framework of the Code has placed interest above all on the ecclesiastical organization (communio hierarchica), while neglecting the constitutive value of the personalistic and community principle (the essence and main nucleus of the communio fidelium). The Italian dogmatic school continued to develop the theory of legal order according to systematic logic and highlighted some organic critical issues. The constitutional opening, implicit in the premises, however, remains temporary and incomplete in its explanation and operational developments. Even Spanish doctrine, perhaps with less originality and acumen, has tried to understand and explain the canonical structure. The exposition of the regulatory provisions prevails over the underlying problems: the guarantee of rights, the rationality of power, the organic nature of the system. Current speculation denotes a conceptual closure and an epistemological restriction that hinder the maturation of constitutional science. The heartfelt and shared perception of a deficit of ecclesial justice and of backwardness compared to secular legal culture opens new horizons to the research and evolution of the reference model.