Radchenko A. The legal status of religious associations as the institutions of civil society.

The thesis is devoted to general theoretical investigation of legal status of religious associations as an institution of civil society.There was defined the particularity of the religious association as an institution of civil society, which is caused by specific principles, aims and functions of their creation and activity, the nature of relations with citizens (believers) and the state. The interdependence of freedom of religion and right of citizens to association as a precondition of providing the autonomy of religious organizations in democratic society gradually reveals. The necessity of compliance of the requirement regarding state-church autonomy in terms of religion claims to universality and absolute truth is justified. There were identified the regularities of transformation of model of state-confessional relations in Ukraine in various stages of its state-legal development during the XX-XXI centuries. As a result of the research there were made proposals concerning the amendments to the Constitution and laws of Ukraine aimed at improving the legal regulation of social relations in the religious sphere.