Roman Rota

The Sacra Rota Romana or Sacred Roman Rota is the supreme court of the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has a complete legal system—it is in fact the oldest and one of the most advanced legal systems still in use today.

It is named Rota (wheel) because the judges rotate between cases: while twelve judges hear a case, there are more than twelve members of the Rota, who are assigned to each case like a queue. For each new case, one judge is taken off one end of the queue, another one is added at the other end, thus rotating them.

The Rota's main function is that of an appellate court, hearing appeals of decisions by diocese courts. Nowadays it mainly hears marriage annulment cases due to the increased divorce rates, including among Catholics, but it can hear cases in any area of Canon Law, except areas in which other courts of the Roman Curia are competent. The Rota's decision can further be appealled to the Pope himself, whose decision is irreversible, but this is very rarely done.

The Rota's other function is that of clarification. Any Catholic can ask the Rota to give a clear interpretation of a specific text of Canon Law. Like all supreme courts, the Rota may (and does) later change its interpretation of the texts it is tasked to enforce.