Freedom of religious organisations in Poland – the case of independent Jewish religious communities
Abstract
This article analyses the issue of the registration of independent Jewish religious communities, i.e., Jewish religious communities unaffiliated with the Association of Jewish Communities in Poland (AJCP). For several years, the possibility of establishing independent Jewish religious communities has been challenged by the AJCP, which claims that the Act on the State’s Relationship with Jewish Religious Communities in Poland exhaustively regulates the legal situation of all Jewish communities in Poland. In a number of Supreme Administrative Court’s decisions on disputes between independent Jewish religious communities and the AJCP, the possibility of registering independent Jewish religious communities has been confirmed. In addition, the Supreme Administrative Court developed a test for assessing the identity or separateness of two religious associations for the purpose of registering new ones. The article attempts to systematise the elements that constitute this test, referring, inter alia, to the material and formal identity of the internal law, the criteria of membership and the will of the persons forming the religious association. Moreover, the Supreme Administrative Court’s decisions are reviewed from the perspective of compliance with the standard of protection of freedom of conscience and religion established by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
Keywords:
independent Jewish religious communities, Act on the State's Relationship with Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, Genov v. Bulgaria, Jewish communities in Poland, religious organisation, Union of Jewish Communities in Poland, identity of religious organisationsReferences
Borecki, Paweł. 2010a. „Status prawny wyznawców judaizmu w Polsce”. Państwo i Prawo 9: 46–59.
Borecki, Paweł. 2010b. „Uwagi o statusie prawnym wyznawców judaizmu na ziemiach polskich”. Czasopismo Prawno-Historyczne 2: 49–89.
Borecki, Paweł. 2011. „Reprywatyzacja nieruchomości na rzecz gmin wyznaniowych żydowskich”. Państwo i Prawo 9: 61–73.
Borecki, Paweł. 2018. „Rejestracja nowych związków wyznaniowych. Uwagi na tle orzecznictwa Naczelnego Sądu Administracyjnego w sprawach tzw. niezależnych gmin żydowskich”. Zeszyty Naukowe Sądownictwa Administracyjnego 2: 85–97.
Brzozowski, Wojciech. 2018. „Członkostwo w związku wyznaniowym. Glosa do wyroku Sądu Najwyższego z dnia 15.09.2017 r., III CSK 241/16”. Przegląd Sądowy 4: 96–103.
Budzowska, Natalia. 2020. „Konstytucyjne uwarunkowania statusu mniejszości żydowskiej w Polsce”. Zeszyty Naukowe Sądownictwa Administracyjnego 4: 87–106.
Czohara, Andrzej, Tadeusz Jacek Zieliński. 2012. Ustawa o stosunku Państwa do gmin wyznaniowych żydowskich w Polsce. Komentarz. Warszawa: Wolters Kluwer.
Olszówka, Marcin. 2016. „Komentarz do art. 53”. W: Konstytucja RP, t. 1: Komentarz do art. 1–86, red. Marek Safjan, Leszek Bosek. Warszawa: Legalis/el.
Sawicki, Jakub. 1937. Studia nad położeniem prawnym mniejszości religijnych w państwie polskim. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Kasy im. Mianowskiego Instytutu Popierania Nauki.
Wróbel, Andrzej. 2023. „Komentarz do art. 84”. W: Małgorzata Jaśkowska, Martyna Wilbrandt-Gotowicz, Andrzej Wróbel. Komentarz aktualizowany do Kodeksu postępowania administracyjnego. LEX/el.
Zieliński, Tadeusz J. 2011. „Prawo wewnętrzne gmin wyznaniowych żydowskich w Polsce a normy ustawowe”. Studia z Prawa Wyznaniowego 14: 25–45.
University of Warsaw
Mgr, Szkoła Doktorska Nauk Społecznych, Zakład Prawa Wyznaniowego, Wydział Prawa i Administracji, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2457-6445License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- According to the Act of 4 February 1994 on copyright and related rights, the author of a publication transfers to the publisher the proprietary copyright of his or her work in all fields of exploitation known on the date of concluding an agreement with the publisher.
- Texts submitted for publication in Studia z Prawa Wyznaniowegocannot infringe the copyright of third parties. The author declares the originality of his or her publication when completing a declaration and signing a publishing agreement.
- Authors are permitted to post the publisher's version of their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories, academia.edu, researchgate.net or on their website) after its initial publication in this journal.
- With the consent of the editors, texts published in Studia z Prawa Wyznaniowego can be republished in other publications (provided that their original place of publication is acknowledged).
- This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
