Bear, 

1)  It is my understanding that the late Georges Cardinal Cottier had a bigger influence on the CCC (the Catechism of the Catholic Church) than the Pope Emeritus.  But, so what?  This whole conversation has been about what is the "first premise" (you words) of canon law.  The CCC and the CIC/83 (the Code of Canon Law of 1983) are two different things.  Now if you mean to suggest that the Pope Emeritus "mostly" wrote CIC/83, maybe he did, but he's not a canon lawyer and among the clerics that St. John Paul thanked for their work on the CIC/83 in Sacræ Disciplinæ Leges, the Pope Emeritus was not mentioned.

to be continued.