Apostolic Signatura - Field of Competence

Field of Competence

The Roman Rota is the ordinary appellate tribunal of the Apostolic See. The Signatura's competence covers instead:

1. complaints of nullity and petitions for total reinstatement against sentences of the Roman Rota;
2. recourses, in cases concerning the status of persons, when the Roman Rota has denied a new examination of the case;
3. exceptions of suspicion and other proceedings against judges of the Roman Rota arising from the exercise of their functions;
4. conflicts of competence between tribunals which are not subject to the same appellate tribunal.

Apart from these judicial matters, the Signatura has competence as an administrative tribunal to deal with controversies over administrative decisions made by or approved by departments of the Roman Curia, if it is contended that the decision violated some law either in the decision-making process or in the procedure used; it can also deal with administrative controversies referred to it by the Pope or those departments, and with conflicts of competence between the departments.

A third field of competence for the Signatura is that of overseeing all the tribunals of the Catholic Church, with power to extend the jurisdiction of tribunals, to grant dispensations from procedural laws, to establish interdiocesan tribunals, and to discipline canonical advocates.