Notre Dame Law School NDLScholarship Journal Articles Publications 2000 A Comparison of the Administrative Law of the Catholic Church and the United States John J. Coughlin Notre Dame Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship Part of the Administrative Law Commons Recommended Citation John J. Coughlin, A Comparison of the Administrative Law of the Catholic Church and the United States, 34 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 81 (2000-2001). Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/517 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. A COMPARISON OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE LAW OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE UNITED STATES Rev. John J. Coughlin, O.F.M.* I. INTRODUCTION Some years ago, an international symposium of jurists described administrative law as encompassing the entire range of action by government with respect to the citizen or by the citizen with respect to the government, ex- cept for those matters dealt with by the criminal law, and those left to private civil litigation where the government's only participation is in furnishing an impartial tribunal with the power of enforcement.' The broad parameters of the concept of administrative law attest to its importance in any legal system. Indeed, for at least the past fifty years, comparative legal scholars have focused on diverse na- tional systems of administrative law.2 Canonists have also contrib- * Assistant Professor of Law, St.