Legal Restrictions on Names of Religious Groups in Australia

Jeremy Patrick is a senior lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice.

In Australia, religious groups are largely able to operate with autonomy and with very little government oversight—including over the names they wish to operate under. This is not to say that the government imposes no limitations whatsoever but that any limitations will arise only in very specific contexts, and for the vast majority of religious groups the vast majority of the time, these hypothetical limitations are of no real concern. In this brief post, I canvas the contexts of denominational trademarks, incorporation, charitable registration, marriage ordination, direct legislative protection, and schism. This brief overview shows that, apart from church property disputes after a schism, judicial and legislative restrictions on religious group names are rare and scattered.

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Names of Churches and Religious Associations in Poland

Mieczysław Różański is a professor at the University of Warmia and Mazury, in Olsztyn (Poland).

Piotr Szymaniec is a professor at Angelus Silesius University of Applied Sciences, in Wałbrzych (Poland).

The Polish Constitution of 2 April 1997 regulates relations between the state and churches and religious associations in Article 25, located in the first chapter, titled Rzeczpospolita (The Republic). The positioning of this regulation at the beginning of the Constitution demonstrates the importance the Constitution’s authors attached to the community dimension of freedom of religion. Article 25(3) specifies that state-religion relations are to be shaped in accordance with principles of respect for the autonomy of churches/religious associations and the state, and their mutual independence, as well as cooperation between churches/religious associations and the state “for the good of an individual and the common good.” Thus, the Constitution establishes a model of relations between the state and churches/religious associations based on cooperation rather than strict separation.

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Naming of Religious Organizations in Romania

Cătălin Raiu is an associate professor at the University of Bucharest, Romania.

Mihai Miron is a senior expert in the government of Romania’s State Secretariat for Religious Affairs.

Tiers of Religious Entities in Romania

In Romania, religious freedom is guaranteed both at the constitutional level and through Law No. 489/2006 on Religious Freedom and the General Status of Religious Denominations. This law was negotiated and adopted by the Romanian Parliament as a prerequisite for Romania’s accession to the European Union in 2007.

Romania fits into the mainstream European religion-state model[1] as it does not have a state or national church. All religious organizations are legally equal in their relationship with state authorities and among one another, and discrimination is prohibited. The Romanian legal framework permits the operation of all types of religious communities, whether registered or unregistered, making the free exercise of religious freedom completely unlinked to formal registration.

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