Sources of legal regulation of the status of religious associations in the Russian Federation and problems of regional legislation
The author analyses the sources of Russian law governing the status of religious associations in the country and outlines the main features of modern regional legislation in this area. The aim of this study is to identify inaccuracies and contradictions in federal and regional legislation, as well as to develop specific proposals and recommendations for improving the legal system of Russia. The study is based on the theoretical and empirical material. In particular, the former is works by Russian scholars (A.A. Agafonova, M.V Baglay, S.A. Burianov, N.V Vitruk, V.S. Nersesyants, A.V. Pchelintsev, A.A. So, O.N. Terekhov, M.A. Shibanova and others) and studies of foreign authors (Christian R. Barker, G. Robbers and others). Federal legislation and acts of regional public authorities were also used. The methodological basis of the research was dialectical, historical-legal and formal-legal methods. In particular, the use of the dialectical method contributed to the study of the legislation on religious associations in Russia in its formation and development. The use of historical legal and formal legal methods helped to identify contradictions between the norms of acts of various levels of power. As a result, the author came to a conclusion that, based on the federal nature of Russia, such sources can be subdivided into federal and regional ones. Among the federal sources, taking into account their legal power, it is possible to single out the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which has the highest constituent power in the state (Articles 13, 14, 19, 28, 29, 30, 59 and others), federal laws, including separate norms of codified acts, and by-laws. The latter fix the necessary mechanism to regulate the joint activities of state authorities of different levels, religious associations and citizens. Further in the hierarchy of sources of Russian law regulating the elements of the right status of religious associations are regional legal acts. They are very diverse, and they can be classified either from their legal force or from their content. In Russia, there is a large number of acts regulating the legal status of religious associations. However, they often encounter collisions, errors in legal techniques, the contradictoriness of federal and regional legislation. The existence of such phenomena restrains the progressive development of relations in the sphere of realisation of freedom of conscience and should become subject of reform.