DECISION OF THE RUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ON THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF ARTICLE 27, POINT 3 OF RUSSIA’S 1997 LAW ON RELIGION

  26 November 1999
DECISION OF THE RUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ON THE 
CONSTITUTIONALITY OF ARTICLE 27, POINT 3 OF RUSSIA’S 1997 
LAW ON RELIGION 

This is the text of  the 23 November decision of Russia’s Constitutional Court 
on the constitutional legality of Article 27, Point 3 of the 1997 law on religion.

1. Paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 27, Point 3 of the Federal Law ‘On Freedom of 
Conscience and Religious Associations’ of 26 September 1997 do not 
contravene the Constitution of the Russian Federation when normatively 
applied in conjunction with Article 9, Point 1 and Article 11, Point 5 of the 
given law to religious organisations which were formed before the law came 
into force and to local religious organisations within the structure of a 
centralised religious organisation.  These sections of the law make clear that 
these organisations have full rights accorded by the status of juridical
personality, without being required to demonstrate a minimum of fifteen
years’ existence on Russian territory, to apply for reregistration annually
or to be subjected to the restrictions implied by Paragraph 4 of Article 27, Point 
4 of the given federal law. In accordance with the requirements of Articles 96 
and 97 of the Federal Constitutional Law ‘On the Constitutional Court of the  
Russian Federation’, the constitutional nature of Paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 
27, Point 4 of the Federal Law ‘On Freedom of Conscience and Religious 
Organisations’ of 26 September 1997 when normatively applied in conjunction 
with Article 9, Point 1 and Article 11, Point 5 of the given law to other 
religious organisations was not assessed in this instance.
2. This legal constitutional interpretation of Paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 27, 
Point 3 in normative conjunction with Article 9, Point 1 and Article 11, Point 5 
of the Federal Law ‘On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations’ 
of 26 September 1997 has been declared by the Constitutional Court to be 
universally binding and excludes any other interpretation in the application of 
the law.(END)