Religion in the light of Liechtenstein public law

The rationale of the project is to research current aspects of religious law in the area of public law, in particular constitutional law. In addition to the Catholic denomination, the cross-sectional topic of public religious law sheds light on all religious denominations in Liechtenstein in the light of state organization and administrative law, access to fundamental rights and international law.
 

Questions of religious law have always arisen in Liechtenstein and have increasingly arisen since the establishment of the Archdiocese of Vaduz in 1997 and against the background of social change towards religious plurality. A new dynamic has recently emerged in the context of the failed or postponed constitutional revisions and a planned Religious Communities Act in 2012 and 2024. In the research field of Liechtenstein religious law, a number of works can be used as a starting point, whereby questions need to be critically addressed for the first time or again. These include, for example, the so-called «principle of consent» under constitutional law (Art. 38 LV), the concept of the «national church» (Art. 37 para. 2 LV), church financing by the municipalities and the state recognition of religious communities.
 

Project duration: 2026-