"Our System": Father Robert T. Kennedy, the American Legal Tradition, and the Development of Administrative Law in the Revision of the Code of Canon Law

As an American civil and canon lawyer, Father Robert Kennedy offered much to the study of canon law and the revision of the Code of Canon Law. As president of the Canon Law Society of America and chairman of the Society's Ad Hoc Committee on Due Process, Kennedy advocated subsidiarity and the development of means of legal recourse through committees of arbitration and administrative courts. With the Church's formation of a Code Commission to study the revision of the code, Kennedy's work as a consultor for the De processibus subcommittee allowed him to advance the cause for subjective rights, due process, and administrative procedures. Kennedy's studies in the United States and Rome provided him with unique insights that he was able to apply concretely to the revision of the code. These insights were influenced by his personal experience of the Universal Church and the American tradition.