PhD, Marko Božić
Université Paris

FINANCIAL HELP OF THE STATE TO RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES

IN FRANCE AS A LAIQUE REPUBLIC

Summary

The aim of this paper is to indicate the complexity of defining the constitutional principle of the secular state. Although there is a belief that this democratic principle implies the lack of financial help of the state to religious communities, the legal constitutional practice of most states, even those with the most adamant separation of the secular and the sacral, points to a different conclusion. One example to support this claim is the constitutional experience of France, a laique republic. Even though in theory it forbids the state subventions to religious communities, the very law on separation from 1905 – the foundation of the French layman state – provides for a series of exceptions which are analyzed in the paper. Besides the exceptions which are the result of jurisprudence of administrative courts, which also determine the margins of the legal principle, there are three exceptions which are openly predicted by the law itself. Yet, these exceptions are legally significantly different. In that sense, the budget support to the work of chapel services in public institutions of the closed type (article 2, section 2) is described as the legal obligation of the state, while the financial support is intended for maintenance and preservation expenses (article 13) or repairs (article 19) of sacral buildings is only an optional possibility which does not legally bind the Republic.

Key words: secular state, France, laique republic, public funds, religious communities.