Vatican City State Legal Research Guide

Researching the civil, canon and temporal laws of the Vatican City State (VCS) can be both frustrating and challenging.  The frustration lies in the inevitable intertwining of the State’s laws with the laws that govern the Roman Catholic Church in the identity of the Holy See, while the challenge is to try to separate the two.  Ultimately, given the constitutional makeup of the city state and the sovereign powers accorded the Supreme Pontiff, there is a limit to the extent to which one can identify and separate the two legal systems.  It is therefore very important for a researcher in this area to distinguish between sources referring to the Holy See (Canon law) and sources referring to the Vatican City State (temporal law).  It is recommended that the researcher consult the materials listed in this pathfinder before attempting a broader search to familiarize themself with the relevant terms and subject matter.

For a more extensive treatment of this topic please see Stephen Young & Alison Shea, Separating State from Church: A Research Guide to the Law of the Vatican City State, 99 L. Lib. J. 589 (2007).

In 2020, Angelo Coccia, an Italian attorney, published an updated, abbreviated version of the above mentioned guide on Globalex.  In addition, the Vatican State section of Andrew Grossman's Finding the Law of the Micro States and the Small Jurisdictions of Europe (also on Globalex) contains useful information.