Civil lawyers are addicted to new anything in the law.  New case law, new legislation, new applications.  It could not be more different for canon lawyers.  There is no precedent or continuous, new legislation in canon law.   Since Canon law has been around for a while, so are some of the resources.   The first Code of Canon Law was promulgated in 1917.  The second Code of Canon Law was promulgated in 1983.  This means that some of the best Canon Law books were published in the last century.  Since Canon Law has been around for a while, so are some of the resources.  It does not matter when a book in Canon Law was published.  If it is after 1983, chances are good it’s still relevant to today.

Since the Catholic Church is a universal church, we also have the problem of language barriers.  The majority of canon law books have not been published in English   My work with the Gratianus Series was one of the most serious efforts to provide canon law resources in English.  This was a dream of my mentor and friend, Dr. Ernest Caparros, the founding editor, director, author, you name it, of the Gratianus Series.  He was tireless in reaching his goal of developing as many canon law resources as he could in his life time. Thank you, Ernest. 

So do not let the age of a publication give you pause in reading a canon law book.  Be glad you have it in English!