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Prescription and Derogation from Prescription in Sexual Abuse of Minor Cases

In both civil and canon law, prescription is a means by which one acquires or loses a subjective right or frees himself from an obligation upon the passage of a specific period of time and the fulfillment of specific conditions prescribed by law. Laws of prescription derive from Roman law and were instituted in order to provide final resolution of disputes concerning the ownership and use of property and the exercise of rights.1 In civil law the means of acquiring the ownership right of someone else’s real property by prescription is by taking unopposed possession of it for the entirety of the prescription period, that is, taking it by what the law calls “adverse possession.” The means of acquiring a right simply to use another person’s property for a certain purpose, such as an easement, is by the unopposed using of it for that purpose for the entirety of the prescription period. Both rights are created by prescription. Passage of time alone, however, is not sufficient to establish prescriptive rights. One must prove the fulfillment of all the other conditions required in addition to the passage of statutory time.2 Canon 197 states that canon law accepts, and therefore will apply, the laws of prescription as they exist in the legislation of the respective nations, except where specific canons of the code provide otherwise.3 Canon 1362 does provide otherwise for criminal actions, including that of sexual abuse of minors by clerics. The Jurist 67 (2007) 503–519