Sacra Rota Romana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tribunal of the Rota Romana or the Sacred Roman Rota is the highest appellate tribunal of the Latin Rite[1] and several of the Eastern Catholic Churches[2] and is the second highest ecclesiastical court constituted by the Holy See.[3] The Roman Catholic Church has a complete legal system, which is the oldest and one of the most advanced legal systems still in use today. The court is named Rota (wheel) because the judges, called auditors, originally met in a round room to hear cases.[4]
The Rota adjudicates cases in a panel (called a turnus) of three auditors assigned by the dean of the tribunal, though sometimes a larger number of auditors are assigned to a particular case.[5] The Pope appoints the Rota's auditors,[6] whose decisions are written in Latin,[7] and also designates the tribunal's dean.[8] The current Dean of the Roman Rota is Most Rev. Antoni Stankiewicz, who has served in this capacity since January 31, 2004.
The Rota's main function is that of a third instance appellate tribunal, reviewing decisions of lower courts if the original court and the first appeal court do not agree on the outcome of a case, though it can also at the option of the appellant hear the first appeal. Dominating its case load are marriage annulment cases due to the increased civil divorce rates among Catholics, but it hears non-administrative cases in any area of canon law. In certain instances, the Rota has exclusive original jurisdiction, such as any contentious case in which a bishop is a defendant. If the case can still be appealed after reaching the Rota, the appeal goes to a different turnus of the Rota.
The Rota is the highest appeals court, but it is not the highest court. If the Rota issues an invalid judgment, the judgment can be vacated before the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court of the Roman Catholic Church outside of the Pope himself. However, the legal powers of the Rota, not the merits of the case, are on trial before the Signatura: all the Signatura does is grant the petitioner a new trial in the Rota if the Rota was found to have erred in procedure.
The Rota, like any other court, has to interpret and apply the law, but unlike common law courts its interpretations do not have the force of law for lower courts.[9] That role in Canon law is taken up by the legislator of the appropriate law.[10] In the case of universal laws (such as the Code of Canon Law), the authentic interpreter is the Pope, who has delegated this power to the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts of the Roman Curia.[11] All courts, including the Rota, are bound to apply the interpretations thus given.
