Discovering the Secret Archives: Evidentiary Privileges for Church Records
In our time there has occurred a plague of claims and law suits against clergy and churches as a result of alleged clergy wrongdoing. Many of these cases have to do with sexual misconduct. Knowing that the individual clergy are likely to have very limited financial resources, claimants have joined c...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
1993
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| In: |
Journal of law and religion
Year: 1993, Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 95-120 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In our time there has occurred a plague of claims and law suits against clergy and churches as a result of alleged clergy wrongdoing. Many of these cases have to do with sexual misconduct. Knowing that the individual clergy are likely to have very limited financial resources, claimants have joined churches and church officials in their lawsuits under theories of negligent selection, negligent assignment, or negligent supervision of clergy. These negligence theories have led to pre-trial discovery requests for confidential church records and clergy personnel files. This has created a serious dilemma for the churches involved, and in particular for the Roman Catholic Church whose canon law mandates the non-disclosure of records kept in the church's secret archives. This article will focus on the conflict between the civil procedural rules creating a right to pre-trial discovery and the free exercise rights of a church to select, evaluate and assign clergy without fear of disclosure of confidential information relied upon in the process. |
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| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1051170 |