In universal law for the first time the conference of bishops was included in the 1983 Code of Canon Law. The legislator states the legal definition of a conference of bishops in can. 447 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law: “a permanent institution, is a group of bishops of some nation or certain territory who jointly exercise certain pastoral functions for the Christian faithful of their territory in order to promote the greater good which the Church offers to humanity, especially through forms and programs of the apostolate fittingly adapted to the circumstances of time and place, according to the norm of law.”