The Ordinary Competent to Conduct the Preliminary Investigation (Can. 1717)
This article aims to fill a glaring lacuna in canonical doctrine: the proper identification of the Ordinary who is competent to conduct a preliminary investigation (cf. can. 1717 §1). The canonical legislation, in fact, makes it possible to identify with certainty the competent judge in a judicial penal process (cf. canons 1408; 1412; 1415), but it does not provide such certain criteria for identifying the competent Ordinary for a preliminary investigation. The author proposes a de iure condito solution that remedies such uncertainty as well as the dangers that this entails, both for the correct unfolding of the aforementioned inquiry and for the Ordinaries involved; he also proposes a de iure condendo solution that resolves the issue in a definitive manner.
Keywords: preliminary investigation; competent Ordinary.