BCO 40.6 - Rules of Process

The Historical Development of the Book of Church Order

Chapter 40 : General Review and Control

40-1

40-2

Paragraph 6 : Rules of Process

40-6. In process against a lower court, the trial shall be conducted according to the rules provided for process against individuals, so far as they may be applicable.

DIGEST : The wording of this paragraph remains unchanged from that of PCUS 1925, and is similar to that of PCUS 1879 and prior draft versions.

BACKGROUND AND COMPARISON :
1. PCA 1973, RoD, 14-6, Adopted text, as printed in the Minutes of General Assembly, p. 153
2. Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, RoD, 14-6, Proposed text, p. 56
3. PCUS 1933, XIII-§266
4. PCUS 1925, XIII-§266
In process against a lower court, the trial shall be conducted according to the rules provided for process against individuals, so far as they may be applicable.

PCUS 1879, Rules of Discipline, XIII-1-7
In process against an inferior court, the trial shall be conducted according to the rules provided for process against individuals, so far as they may be applicable.

PCUS 1869 draft, Canons of Discipline, XIII-1-7
and
PCUS 1867 draft, Canons of Discipline, XIII-1-7
In process against an inferior court, being a body ecclesiastic, the trial shall be conducted according to the rules provided for process against individuals, so far as they may be applicable.

COMMENTARY :
F.P. Ramsay, Exposition of the Book of Church Order (1898, p. ), on :
§246.--VII. In process against an inferior court, the trial shall be conducted according to the rules provided for process against individuals, so far as they may be applicable.
Of the rules in Chap. VI., 173-'78 are superceded by 245 ; 179 and 180 are not applicable, nor 191 ; and instead of 190 it lies in the nature of the case that the accused court must be represented by one or more persons appointed by itself or, in case of its failure to answer citation, by the superior court, and said counsel must have membership in one or both the courts. The general rules of evidence will be the same as in the trial of individuals.