THE CERTAIN ISSUES OF APPLICATION OF SUBSTANTIVE AND PROCEDURAL LAW IN RESOLVING RELIGION-RELATED DISPUTES: CASE LAW OF THE SUPREME COURT

Abstract

The religion-related disputes are one of the most difficult, as they relate a rather delicate issue of a person’s exercise of freedom of conscience. This category of disputes has not been very common in national courts, the lack of experience of judges in resolving disputes with a religious component has led to contradictory jurisprudence. Given the above and taking into account the main task of the Supreme Court aimed at ensuring the unity and sustainability of the judicial practice, the analysis of the rulings of the Supreme Court gets significant importance. It can be stated that these disputes are of interjurisdictional nature and may be the subject consideration by both civil and commercial, and administrative courts, depending on the subject matter of the claim. The Supreme Court also makes a clear distinction between the legal disputes and the disputes that do not have a legal element andand must be handled in an extrajudicial manner. . Disputes with a religious component are not limited to a single category of cases, wich in turn, givesreasons find that such disputes have such a feature as inter-categoriality. The point is that the subjective criterion cannot be applied to the study of these categories, as disputes with a religious component can arise in the areas of labor, protection of property rights, land, real estate, registration procedures, etc. The Article substantiates the proposal on the need for the National School of Judges of Ukraine to develop the special courses for judges that would improve and deepen knowledge in the context and issues of religion-related disputes. The author also notes the value of the national experience in resolving such disputes, as it can be useful for the countries that have the similar religious situation or have almost reached it. Key words: religion-related disputes, disputes with a religious component, jurisdiction, labor disputes, housing disputes.