Vorob'eva Yu.Yu. Religious organizations as a civil society institution: peculiarities of legal status

Abstract: Constitutional state can’t be imagined without the developed civil society and no one doubts the importance of cooperation between them for the purpose of developing the country. Civil society mainly consists of autonomous voluntary unions, and religious organizations are among them. The questions of cooperation between the state and religious organizations are especially important in the conditions of exacerbation of religious extremism and the processes of demoralization in our society. However, the development of this issue is impossible without a clear understanding of religious organizations’ status. The innovations of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation influence this status. This article is dedicated to the analysis of the amendments to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and their influence on religious organizations’ status. The normative base of the research contains federal laws. The methodology of the research is based on general scientific methods (the logical, the systems, the comparative methods) and special scientific methods (interpretation of legal norms, the structural-functional and the comparative-legal method). The novelty of the research lies in the analysis and consideration of the novels of the Civil Code and their influence on the status of religious organizations in the Russian Federation. The author concludes that the approach of the legislation to the characteristic of a legal status of public and religious organizations is not uniform. The regulations amended to the Civil Code haven't concretized the status of religious organizations. Many issues haven't been solved. 

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