Review article
THE LEGISLATURE ON RELIGION DURING THE KINGDOM OF YUGOSLAVIA
Dragan Novaković
; pomoćnik ministra u Vladi Republike Srbije
Abstract
This paper illustrates the conditions under which the Kingdom of Yugoslavia solved the complex issue of the position of churches (denominations) and religious communities, which up to the period of Unification (the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), functioned under different and often opposing legal and political systems. Political agreement was made more concrete through the existing Constitutions in which the modern principle of the separation of church and religious communities from the State had been neither applied nor realized. The executed coup d'état inaugurated a new political reality characterized by its promotion of the concept of state and national unity. The visible influence of religious communities on various social strata within the population contributed to their participation in the implementation of the new policy, as a result of which a special legislature was passed and the negotiations with the Vatican on the adoption of a Concordat, in order to regulate the position of the Catholic Church intensified. The adopted Laws clearly show that churches had, to a certain extent, succeeded in eliminating the influence of the state and in turn ensured independence in the resolution of all issues directly related to the respect of and safeguarding of the existing internal order. The general conception of the Laws did not give warranty to either side for proclaiming itself victorious, because the regime had in an appropriate manner achieved control over the existing confessions (denominations) and had eliminated the impermissible concept of a State Church, while retaining, at the same time, the solution under which churches (denominations) and religious communities had been given the status of Public Institutions of Special Significance.
Keywords
Kingdom of Yugoslavia; legislature on religion; legal position; Churches (denominations) and Religious Communities; the Concordat
Hrčak ID:
107291
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2012.
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