Legal Regime of Real Property for Religious Purpose: Canonical Aspect

Abstract

Today, an array of property objects for religious purposes has a specific legal regime, the determinant of which is a double circle of restrictions on turnover, both from church and secular law. This provision necessitates taking into account, when regulating property rela­tions related to church property, both civil and canonical sources of law. This article is devot­ed to identifying the legal regime of real estate for religious purposes. In particular, it makes an attempt to systematize canonical norms devoted to the legal regulation of immovable church objects; the process of canonical formation of the institution of church property is con­sidered; the legal status of real estate for religious purposes is analyzed; characteristic fea­tures of such objects are identified; conflicts in the enforcement of certain norms regulating the property legal relations of the Church are analyzed; the role of economists in regulating church property is revealed; the applicability of the identified norms of the Canonical Corps in modern legal relations of the Russian Orthodox Church is analyzed. Using the comparative legal research method, as well as the historical and canonical approach, the author comes to the conclusion about the canonical isolation of real estate for religious purposes, expressed in the presence of a number of restrictions on its use, due to its special sacramental nature, as well as the full or partial applicability of the analyzed canons in the Russian Orthodox Church.