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The ius commune (civil law and canon law) tradition encompasses the idea of a supralegal law (ius divinum, ius naturale) which determines the validity of the law (lex) and engages human responsibility in its commitment to the common good. Nowadays, the distinction between ius and lex is frequently overlooked or explicitly rejected. So the recovery of an approach that has forged Western legal culture may contribute to the construction of the common good through political dialogue in democratic societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work intends to examine some aspects which characterize the actual situation of the canonical science. In the first part, the image of the canon law which emerges from the texts which constitute the normative body in force today in the Church and in the magisterium of John Paul II and Benedict XVI is focused. The canon law is confirmed as an essential element in the life of the Church. In consequence, the methodological orientations which flow from this conviction are underlined: excluding, in this way, that the law of the Church traverses a «crisis» in its foundations. In the second part, the actual conditions of the teaching of the canon law in the ecclesiastical faculties and in the faculties of civil law in some European countries (Germany, France, Spain and Italy) are described. At last, a profile of the work which the history of the canon law can assume within its function, proper to the canonical science, of knowing and understanding the juridical eclesial realities is traced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]