Правото на църковно самоопределение във Федерална република Германия
The Church's Right to Self-Determination in Germany

Summary/Abstract: FOREIGN EXPERIENCE / The article elucidates the position of the Church in relation to the State according to German constitutional law. German state-church law has, over the centuries, gradually shaped the relationship between State and Church into one of peaceful cooperation, although still fraught with occasional frictions and differences. The Church's right of self-determination is specifically guaranteed in the German Constitution. It protects the right of the Church to organise and administrate its matters independently and complements the general freedom of religious life and practice (freedom of religion) with the additional freedoms of religious self-administration, organisation and regulation (right of self-determination). The right of self-determination applies only within the limits set out by statutory reservations. What boundaries these reservations imply for the Church, has not yet been conclusively resolved. The Church has a sphere of independent rights, which is nonetheless contained in the over- all structure of the German Constitution, Statutory reservations are the connection between the Church's self-determination and the constitutional order.

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