DE LA PRINCIPIUL „LAICITĂȚII”, LA CEL AL „NEUTRALITĂȚII CONFESIONALE A STATULUI”. REFLECȚII ȘI PRECIZĂRI DE DOCTRINĂ JURIDICĂ
From the principle of “secularity” to that of “confessional neutrality of the State”. Reflections and clarifications of legal doctrine

Summary/Abstract: In the pages of this study, we have provided some explanations and clarifications of legal doctrine on the “secularity” and confessional “neutrality” of a State based on some texts of the main international and national instruments (constitutions, laws of Religious Denominations, Statutes, etc.). By examining and evaluating the documentary evidence provided by these texts and specialized doctrine, we have been able to ascertain that the secularity and denominational neutrality of states were perceived and defined in terms of their content through the prism of anticlericalism, an ideological trend boosted by the French Revolution of 1789, which led to the abolition of the principle ‘cujus regio, eius religio’, i.e. ‘to whom the monarchy belongs, religion belongs’, and to the exacerbation of opposition to the involvement of the clergy in the political life of France. From 1905, when the law separating the State from the Church was published, until 1958, France recognized and affirmed the principle of secularism, which - from that year onwards - it associated with the concept of the neutrality of the State in its relations with the Church, id est religious cults. Since then, however, both concepts, id est “laïcité” and “neutrality”, have undergone profound changes because of the new realities that have arisen in the relationship between the State and the Church, culminating in Protocols of cooperation for the common good of their respective subjects.

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