On Constitutional Protection Of Freedom Of Religious Belief

Constitutionalism, in the way of separation of powers and balances, is a kind of right control and protection mechanism to safeguard the rights of individual freedom. Based on citizens' inner beliefs, religious freedom is one's freedom of believing in religions voluntarily, including freedom of religion and religious activities.Throughout the world, since it has been laid down in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the French Declaration of Human rights, religious freedom is universally stated on different countries' constitutions in a way of a fundamental right and is regarded as one of the most contents of their constitutional construction. In practice, how to protect it specifically varies from country to country, but we can make it Sure that, from the very beginning constitutionalism, as the enforcement of the Constitution, is linked to the freedom of religious freedom, which is the basis of individual freedom and pregnant with the constitutional concept. In the process of their seeking for religious freedom, people promote the development of Constitutionalism; On the other hand, Protection of religious freedom can not be separated from the perfection of the constitutional system. With the historical development and social progress, constitutionalism and religious freedom is more closely linked.China is a country with a variety of religions and peoples, and most of the minorities have the historical tradition of religion, so the protection of religious freedom is not only the right to citizens' religious freedom, but also an event related to national equality and unity and an important content of the constitutional development. After years of efforts, as an important human right, our citizens' religion has been protected, however, in practice, there still exists the facts that religious freedom is invaded, which is inconsistent with the constitutional society and country. From another angle, it has also reflected our constitution is still not complete and became one of the issues that some Westerners attack our human rights situations. Therefore, to research the protection of China's religious freedom in theory is practically significant. In addition, as an important component of the human rights system, religious freedom is not only the origin of concept of human rights, but plays a decisive role in the development of western constitutionalism. So to do a deep study of the protection of religious freedom is also theoretically significant.Presently, although our scholars have started the active discussion of religious freedom earlier, for example, some put forward the protection of religious freedom from the religious point of view; some protect citizens' religious freedom through religious legislation; others consider religious freedom as a fundamental right of citizens and do some relative research from the point of constitution. The protection of religious freedom is getting more attention in the academic field. It is no longer confined to the protection of minorities' rights and has moved from the perspective of human rights protection to the study on religious freedom. However, it is lack of comparison and research on the related issues in foreign countries, so the research on the point of constitutionalism and protection of religious freedom is even rare.Therefore, based on the research results, this paper uses comparison and starts with the basic theories of constitutionalism and religious freedom and their relation to introduce some relative situations of protecting religious freedom in foreign countries. At the same time, on the basis of some valuable experience, it puts forward a point of view that citizens' religious freedom can be fully realized only if the constitutional system is completed. Meanwhile, aimed at completing our constitution and realizing citizens' religious freedom, this paper offers a new research view about the protection of citizens' religious freedom.The article is divided into four parts:The first part analyzes the basic concept of the constitutionalism and religious freedom and their relationship.The second part organizes some major countries and international society's protection of religious freedom in legislation and practice. Firstly, it briefly describes the protection of religious freedom through legislation and practice in the United States, Japan, and Germany; secondly, it lists systematically how to protect the religious freedom after World War II in the international human rights law.The third part summarizes the protection of religious freedom before the founding of new China and now, and after the analysis of our present protection of religious freedom, it points out the existing problems on religious freedom during China's socialist period, and makes the corresponding analysisThe fourth part carries out a preliminary thought of the constitutional protection of religious freedom to protect our country's religious freedom better on this basis.