BCO 42.2 - Prerequisite of a Regular Trial

The Historical Development of the Book of Church Order

Chapter 42 : Appeals

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Paragraph 2 : Prerequisite of a Regular Trial

42-2. Only those who have submitted to a regular trial are entitled to an appeal.

DIGEST : The current PCA text dates to _____. PCA 1973 and the antecedent PCUS texts had a second sentence which was removed under amendment as unnecessary.]

BACKGROUND AND COMPARISON :
1. PCA 1973, RoD, 16-2, Adopted text, as printed in the Minutes of General Assembly, p. 153
2. Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, RoD, 16-2, Proposed text, p. 57
3. PCUS 1933, RoD, XVI-§274
4. PCUS 1925, RoD, XVI-§274
Only those who have submitted to a regular trial are entitled to an appeal. Those who have not submitted to a regular trial are not entitled to an appeal.

PCUS 1879, Rules of Discipline, XIII-3-2
Those who have not submitted to a regular trial are not entitled to appeal.

1. PCUS 1869 draft, Canons of Discipline, XIII-3-2
2. PCUS 1867 draft, Canons of Discipline, XIII-3-2
3. PCUSA 1858 draft, Revised Book of Discipline, VIII-3-2
In cases of judicial process, those who have not submitted to a regular trial are not entitled to appeal.

COMMENTARY :
F.P. Ramsay, Exposition of the Book of Church Order (1898, pp. 247-248), on XIII-3-2:
256.--II. Those who have not submitted to a regular trial are not entitled to appeal.
If there has been no regular trial, but the court has decided without process, or if the court has dealt with the party as contumacious, he may complain (267), but he may not appeal. It is true that then the sentence, however unjust, is not arrested ; but the Rules of Discipline assume that, while a court may err, it will more probably be right than the party that objects to its action ; and especially is it unlikely that a court will treat as contumacious one who really was not so, or proceeed without process where the objector really desired process.