In law, (
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
for 'on his own impulse') describes an official act taken without a formal request from another
party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...
. Some jurisdictions use the term for the same concept.
In
Catholic canon law
The canon law of the Catholic Church () is "how the Church organizes and governs herself". It is the system of religious laws and ecclesiastical legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regul ...
, it refers to a document issued by the
pope
The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...
on his own initiative and personally signed by him.
[Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ), s.v. motu proprio] Such a document may be addressed to the whole church, to part of it, or to some individuals.
[ The first papal was promulgated by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484.]
Catholic Church
Effect
An important effect of issuing a document in this way is that a rescript containing the clause is valid and produces its effect even in cases where fraud would ordinarily have vitiated the document, since the pope does not rely on the reasons alleged when he grants a favour.[ Withholding of the truth in what, according to canonical law, style and practice, must for validity be expressed, normally renders a rescript invalid, but not if the rescript is issued ''motu proprio''. Consequently, canonists traditionally called the clause the "mother of repose".][ The designation indicates that the validity of the document is independent of the validity of whatever reasons may have been adduced in a request for its issuance.]
Form
A rescript begins by giving the reasons for issuing it, and then indicates the law or regulation made or the favour granted. It is less formal than a constitution and carries no papal seal. Its content may be instructional (e.g., on the use of chant), administrative (e.g., concerning a church law or the establishment of a commission), or merely to confer a special favour.
Civil law
More generically, this phrase (or ; Latin allows free word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntax, syntactic Constituent (linguistics), constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages em ...
) is used to indicate an act taken by a court without a motion
In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...
from a party to the case. The term is used very rarely in legal opinions in the United States, where is preferred, but is used in Canada. is used to refer to a decision by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...
to initiate an investigation into a situation without a referral from the Security Council or a state party; this power is granted by article 15(1) of the Rome Statute. European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially the Court of Justice (), is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is tasked with interpreting ...
judgments use the phrase "of its own motion" and its equivalent in other community languages
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...
.[European Court of Justice]
Joined Cases C-222/05 to C-225/05
delivered 7 June 2007, accessed 30 June 2023
As it relates to a monarch, the term describes the condition of a royal decree being made expressly on the sovereign's initiative, a practice more usual in some nations than in others.
Relating to orders of chivalry
An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is a society, fellowship and college of knights, typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic military orders of the Crusades ( 1099–1291) and p ...
, like the Order of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic Church, Cathol ...
, the grand master according to the statutes can confer the order , instead of in response to a nomination by a national delegation.
See also
* List of motu proprios
References
{{Authority control
Catholic canonical documents
Holy See
Latin legal terminology
Sources of law