ENSURING THE PROPERTY INTERESTS OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS IN RUSSIA

Abstract

The article examines the participation of religious organizations in civil law relations, along with the challenges concerning the methods and procedural forms for safeguarding their infringed or contested property rights and legitimate interests. The author is convinced that religious organizations are subjects of civil law with no public law powers, so that disputes under private law involving them shall be settled through litigation in civil and arbitration courts. Purpose: To substantiate the specific features of religious organizations’ participation in property relations and to propose methods and forms for protecting their rights. Methods: The unique features of the legal status of religious organizations were identified by comparing them with other subjects of civil law; the historical method enabled tracing the evolution of the procedural position of religious organizations; the characteristics of the participation of religious organizations in public and private law relations were analyzed. Results: The article concludes that property disputes involving religious organizations can be resolved not only by state courts through claim proceedings, but disputes arising from relations concerning the transfer of state or municipal property to religious organizations must be resolved strictly by state courts; cases challenging the refusal to transfer state or municipal property to a religious organization must be resolved through administrative proceedings; private law conflicts involving religious organizations can, by agreement of the parties, be referred to arbitration courts (arbitrations), while religious (spiritual) courts are not arbitration courts.