Chapter 6 examines how global legislation responds to the diversity of the local churches by scrutinising the legal rules that address cultural issues. An analysis of the canons of the Code of Canon Law that mention culture reveals terminological ambiguity and conceptual vagueness, avoiding a definition of culture or a clarification of its significance for the law. This uncertainty is reflected in the strategies employed by legislation to address cultural idiosyncrasies. Local needs are mostly safeguarded through a rule-and-exception policy which allows decentralised authorities to depart from a rule if it poses a problem for their church. Cultural issues also come into play when applying the law. Although the absence of a doctrine of stare decisis enables ecclesiastical tribunals and administration to interpret rules without being bound by precedents, they must apply the canonical rules of interpretation and adhere to a standardised methodology guiding interpreters towards legal meaning as determined by the Apostolic See. Instruments of legal flexibility enable appliers of law to respond to clashes between centralised regulations and local demands. These instruments ease hardship deriving from legal rules in particular situations. However, they also prevent the reform of culturally insensitive laws by offering an alternative to legal change.