The Vatican City State, between “Western Legal Tradition” and Global Law. Reflections on the New Fundamental Law

The evolution of the Vatican’s legal system offers an important case study for public law scholars. This contribution places the recent reforms introduced with the Fundamental Law of May 2023 in the context of the historical evolution and the relationships between temporal power and spiritual power. After an introduction on the topic of the “Western legal tradition” and the particular role, in its context, of the religious factor, this article describes the evolution of the Vatican legal system and reviews the innovations introduced with the Fundamental Law of 2023. Subsequently it places these evolutions in the context of the relationship between Vatican law and global law. A particularly turbulent picture emerges where the legal issues appear to indicate much deeper veins that seem to involve the very conception of the Catholic Church’s role in the world.