On the controversial issues of the use of the term "sect" in legal acts (on the example of the Central Federal District legislation)

The subject of the study is the use of the definition of "sect", which is absent in federal legislation, in relation to religious organizations registered in accordance with the established procedure in the legal acts of the Central Federal District. The object of the research is scientific articles by foreign and domestic scientists on the subject, legal acts of the Central Federal District. The author examines in detail modern scientific and theoretical research in the field of destructive religiosity and a vast array of legal acts in which the term "sect" is used. Particular attention is paid to hypothetical problems that can lead to broad discretion of subjects endowed with public powers when trying to introduce rather religious, sociological (and often just everyday) term "sect" into legal discourse. Methodological basis of the research: analysis, synthesis, formal-logical and comparative-legal methods in their systemic interrelation, as well as the consistent practical experience of the author of the article as a teacher of religious studies, and an employee of one of the executive authorities of Primorsky Krai. The main conclusions of the study are the statement of the unsatisfactory experience of the implementation of the term "sect" in the legal field of the subjects of the Russian Federation included in the Central Federal District; the formulation of recommendations to eliminate these shortcomings of legal regulation. The author's special contribution to the study of the applicable conceptual apparatus is that there are practically no similar studies in the scientific legal literature. Representatives of other humanities disciplines use this term as a matter of course, but their ideas are speculative, very poorly correlated with legal reality. In a state governed by the rule of law, it is hardly justified to arbitrarily label "sect" on various religious organizations, even relatively small ones.

Religious associations, sects, cults, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, state-confessional relations, law enforcement practice, human rights, legality, legal technique