When it comes to economic relations involving religious organizations, the property issue is Central to the construction of these relations, since to obtain the status of a legal entity, the subject must have a certain property base. Legal regime of property of religious organizations not only define requirements to the status of a property (i.e. object), but also determines the regulation of economic competence of the entity that owns this property. Among legal scholars, disputes about the ownership of religious organizations are taking place precisely because the Central place in the system of property rights is occupied by the right of ownership, which is fundamental among other property rights. All other rights (the right of economic management, the right of lifelong inherited ownership of land, etc.) are derived from it and have limited property rights. Economic relations as a subject of regulation consists of only two elements – organizational and property. Property issues related to the property of any religious organizations traditionally remain one of the most difficult for legal understanding, although they are crucial, since the implementation of the right to freedom of conscience presupposes the existence of a certain property base. The question of ownership of religious property is directly related to the natural right of every person to freedom of conscience, which has found its legislative expression both at the international legal level and in the norms of domestic legislation. The Russian legislator believes that religious organizations are such non-profit organizations as, for example, charitable organizations, which means that they can be studied without taking into account the specifics of internal organizational and organizational-property relations in isolation from the provisions of Canon law, and this leads to the emergence of many controversial issues that relate to the economic activities of religious organizations. The current legislation does not allow for a clear definition of what form of ownership the property of religious organizations belongs to, since the current legislation does not clearly define such a form of ownership as the property of parents. In our opinion, the property of religious organizations should be classified as a different form of ownership – as the property of religious organizations, and not as private or collective, since religious organizations have a specific, different from public organizations, the principle of organizational structure, the procedure for making decisions on property management, and so on.
Theory and Practice of the Realization of the Right to Freedom of Religion: All-Ukrainian and Regional Contexts