LAW AND RELIGION IN THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY AMERICAN STATE

Abstract

The colonial period of American statehood was characterized by the unification of religious and political power in the emerging communities and parishes, and the dominant Anglican and Protestant churches laid down in the legal system of the young state the features of many institutions that continued the traditions of the first settlers. The purpose of the study is to determine the evolutionary path and specific features of the legal regulation of religious freedom in the American states from the founding of the first settlements to the adoption of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Such methods of research are used as historical method of cognition, comparative-legal, formal-legal, abstraction and analysis. Conclusions: specific features of the social structure and cultural traditions of the first settlers from Western Europe, expressed in the religious nature of power and the dominance of the Christian Church in the legal regulation of marriage and family relations, property rights, justice, taxation, became determinants of the reflection of the Protestant and Anglican principles and traditions in the U.S. legal system. At the same time, the religious segregation, which became widespread in the sixteenth century and raised the issue of legal enshrinement of religious freedom in the states, was overcome only at the end of the eighteenth century thanks to the activities of social movements and politicians. It is noteworthy that the provision of the First Amendment to the Constitution on the separation of Church and State is still the subject of litigation, reflecting the retained religious motive of the American state foundation.