The Constitutional Court of Ukraine refused to open constitutional proceedings concerning the complaint of 47 deputies against the law on the transfer of religious communities from one church to another – the so-called law on “church raiding”. The press service of the court reported that on March 20th the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court considered this question on March 19th.
At a meeting the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine considered the question of initiating constitutional proceedings concerning the case on the constitutional idea of 47 People’s Deputies of compliance of the Constitution (constitutionality) of the law “On the Introduction of Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on the Subordination of Religious Organisations and the Procedure of the State Registration of Religious Organisations with the Status of a Legal Entity”.
The Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has made the decision to refuse to initiate constitutional proceedings
As a reminder, on January 17th the Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 4128-D, which speaks in particular about the transition of churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to the new schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It, in particular, stipulates that parishes can make a decision on a transition to another church with no less than two-thirds of votes at a general meeting.
On January 18th the People’s Deputies from the “Opposition Bloc” Vadim Novinsky, Aleksandr Dolzhenkov, and Vasily Nimchenko, as well as 47 more people’s deputies, sent a statement to the Constitutional Court concerning this law.