Title III. General Decrees and Instructions(Cann. 29 - 34)

Can.29 General decrees, by which a competent legislator issues common prescripts for a

community capable of receiving law, are laws properly speaking and are governed by the prescripts

of the canons on laws.

Can.30 A person who possesses only executive power is not able to issue the general decree

mentioned in can. 29 unless, in particular cases, it has been expressly granted to that person by

a competent legislator according to the norm of law and the conditions stated in the act of the

grant have been observed.

Can.31 §1. Those who possess executive power are able to issue, within the limits of their

competence, general executory decrees, namely, those which more precisely determine the

methods to be observed in applying the law or which urge the observance of laws.

§2. With respect to the promulgation and suspensive period (vacatio) of the decrees

mentioned in §1, the prescripts of can. 8 are to be observed.

Can.32 General executory decrees oblige those who are bound by the laws whose methods of

application the same decrees determine or whose observance they urge.

Can.33 §1. General executory decrees, even if they are issued in directories or in documents of

another name, do not derogate from laws, and their prescripts which are contrary to laws lack all

force.

§2. Such decrees cease to have force by explicit or implicit revocation made by competent

authority as well as by cessation of the law for whose execution they were given. They do not,

however, cease when the authority of the one who established them expires unless the contrary

is expressly provided.

Can.34 §1. Instructions clarify the prescripts of laws and elaborate on and determine the methods

to be observed in fulfilling them. They are given for the use of those whose duty it is to see that

laws are executed and oblige them in the execution of the laws. Those who possess executive

power legitimately issue such instructions within the limits of their competence.

§2. The ordinances of instructions do not derogate from laws. If these ordinances cannot be

reconciled with the prescripts of laws, they lack all force.

§3. Instructions cease to have force not only by explicit or implicit revocation of the

competent authority who issued them or of the superior of that authority but also by the cessation

of the law for whose clarification or execution they were given.