This study reviews how the term "Apostolic See" was used in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and in post-Conciliar documents including the new "Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium" which opts, with but one exception, for the use of "Apostolic See" when naming the Roman Apostolic See.

However, a more recent sampling of the use of "Apostolic See" by the Maronite, Melkite and Coptic Catholic Churches reveals that these churches have not invariably adopted the Western practice of naming Rome the "Apostolic See". The work concludes with the wish that the new Eastern code's adoption of the Roman terminology does not obscure its genuinely Eastern and ecumenical character.