Law and Religion

The manner in which public life has evolved in recent decades shows that humanity is increasingly moving towards ‘post-secularity’, i.e., religious values and concepts are playing a greater role in people’s lives. There has been a new twist in this movement in recent years, taking into account the world’s pivot towards multipolarity and cultural post-globalization. Russia has not remained on the sidelines of these changes and in many ways has led the current trends in this transformation. The country’s multi-confessional and multinational nature, which is undoubtedly a huge advantage, dictates the need to search for models where traditional religious confessions can harmoniously coexist, including their aligned understanding of traditional values, which has become a guideline and foundation for the development of legal policy in modern Russia. Discussions about interaction between law and religion should seemingly take place not only within the framework of an interfaith dialogue, but also in an interdisciplinary manner, i.e., not only with the involvement of resources from the legal community, but from political philosophy, history, and sociology as well. In addition, we must remember that from the standpoint of the foundations of state policy on preserving and strengthening traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, the list of traditional faiths is not exhaustive and includes, among other things, the religious cults of Russia’s Indigenous minorities, whose rights are protected by the Russian Constitution. What are the value implications from combining various systems of religious values, what influence do they have on the content of the law, and how can they be implemented and factored into the current legal regulation and legal policy? What are the institutional implications in terms of the legal regulation of the activities of religious organizations and government-confessional relations? What are the theoretical and historical implications of the fundamental interaction of religion and law as two aspects of social life, the relationship of their key concepts and views of the world, as well as the history of their convergence?