Ian Thornton is completing his LLM in Canon Law at Cardiff University; and below he asks for readers’ assistance in sourcing information for his dissertation

I am looking at what may, in certain cases, be a clash between secular and canon law over the designation by local authorities of public footpaths through churchyards.

Readers will be aware that a churchyard usually falls within the curtilage of its church and as such is deemed to be within the jurisdiction of the diocesan consistory court. This being the case the local authority will have few rights over it.

Many established churchyards will have a path or pathways through them to give access to the church for its proper purpose. Over time a permissive use, determinable at will by the church, may also be established for non-ecclesiastical purposes: for example, where there are two paths approaching the church from different points the whole may be used as a short cut. Permanent alienation necessarily requires approval by faculty. Continue reading →