LICENSE. - An academic degree that universities and ecclesiastical faculties grant to ecclesiastical or lay students who, having completed the required studies in the respective discipline, have given proof of being qualified to teach in schools that do not confer academic degrees.
Having arisen more or less contemporaneously around the first half of the 13th century in the major medieval universities, especially in law and theology, with aims analogous to one another, only through a slow development did it become an institution distinct from the doctorate, of which it subsequently constituted, and still constitutes, a step. At present it is regulated by the constitution Deus scientiarum Dominus, of 24 May 1931, by the Ordinationes of the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities of Studies of 12 June 1931, and in the Declaration of the same of 23 May 1948; and it is indispensable in order to be able to ascend, generally after only one year, to the doctorate. Only faculties canonically erected may confer it, and in all the disciplines in which the laurea (v.) is conferred, according to their respective statutes brought into conformity with the aforementioned apostolic documents. The licence is conferred solely in the name of the supreme pontiff or, during a vacant see, of the Holy See. Unlike what happens for the laurea, the licence is not conferred ad honorem.
To obtain the licence the following are required: 1) a successful outcome in the examinations of all the individual disciplines proper to the degree, for which attendance is absolutely required; without examinations and without the said attendance (extended at least for two thirds of the year or of the semester, where the year is divided into distinct academic semesters) the conferral of the degree is invalid by law; this holds also for those who legitimately transfer to another faculty; 2) a special examination to be taken at the end of the course that immediately precedes the licence itself and comprising several academic disciplines (for theology, canon law and philosophy the said examination must comprise all the subjects specifically proper to the respective three faculties); 3) the production of a short written work demonstrating the candidate's capacity for scientific work; 4) a written examination on some point chosen from any of the subjects of the entire academic course; 5) participation in the so-called practical exercises, that is, in works of scientific investigation under the guidance of a professor. To receive the certificate of the licence the candidate must, in accordance with can. 1406 § 1 n. 8 of the CIC, make the profession of faith. Account must be taken of the Declaration of 23 May 1948 which — starting from the observation of the fact that for the licence, as regulated by the constitution of Pius XI and the Ordinationes of 1931, there is practically required what before 1931 was proper to the laurea — grants to that same licence, obtained after that time, all the juridical effects that until then the laurea itself produced. This is nevertheless still indispensable for one who is designated professor in a faculty that confers academic degrees; for the auditors of the Sacred Roman Rota in accordance with can. 1598 § 2 of the CIC. Therefore in all cases in which the CIC requires the laurea (generally for certain ecclesiastical offices and benefices) today the licence alone suffices (see also LAUREA).
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Lorenzo Simeone