A COMPARATIVE LOOK AT RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN CONSTITUTIONS, WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION ON SUGGESTIONS FOR THE NEW SERBIAN CONSTITUTION

Abstract

The forming phase for the new Serbian constitution, from 2000. to 2006., has given enough time so that this neglected constitutional issue can be given the needed attention, and for various reasons. Initially, due to the very content of the diff erent propositions for the constitution itself, for acknowledging the existence and analyzing the reasons for the diff erences in these issues between diff erent propositions, and lastly but most importantly how these issues are managed in the relevant countries. The analysis has shown that all of the three publicly published propositions for the new Serbian constitution, which as opposed to others contain clauses about religion and religious communities, do so in a much broader perspective then comparative examples. Above all, they contain the obscure regulations for the pursuit of social and charity aff airs. This particularly pertains to the propositions of the Liberal party which have even foreseen the government’s obligation to “take into account religious beliefs and to maintain respectable relations with religious communities”.