There has been a great deal of "discussion" lately concerning whether a State of Emergency exists within the Church that justified the episcopal consecrations done by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988 and the existence of chapels administered by priests who have separated themselves from diocesan structures that are in the hands of unbelievers and apostates.
Let me try to answer your question. From
Our Lady's Warriors.
Because canon law, like all other legal systems, is open to interpretation, the Church offers various norms for interpreting canon law as well as for resolving disputes over interpretation that may arise between canonists. One such norm is canon 16 §1 that states: §1 "Laws are authentically interpreted by the legislator and by that person to whom the legislator entrusts the power of authentic interpretation." This simply means that laws are to be interpreted according to the mind of the person who made (legislated) the law, as well as his successor and those who either he or his successor have delegated in an official capacity to interpret the law. In the case of the Code of Canon Law, the legislator is Pope John Paul II, and the persons entrusted to interpret the law as it applies to the Lefebvre schism are both Cardinal Gantin as the Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops, and the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts. The weight of their canonical interpretation is outlined in the following paragraph, canon 16 A72 which states: "An authentic interpretation which is presented by way of a law has the same force as the law itself, and must be promulgated. If it simply declares the sense of words that are certain in themselves, it has retroactive force. In other words, when a question arises as to how to interpret a law, and the legislator offers an authentic interpretation, the legislator's interpretation is just as binding as the law itself."