Topic: Religion and the state: how far apart a constitution puts them
How does Taiwan mark Religion and the state: how far apart a constitution puts them?
Everyday topic
Article 13 of the constitution of the Republic of China is a single sentence: the people shall have freedom of religious belief. Seven characters — the shortest treatment among these seven constitutions. There is no separation clause, no prohibition on establishing a state religion, no bar on public money going to religious bodies. It sits in Chapter II, on the rights and duties of the people, in a run of freedoms: speech before it (Article 11), residence and movement before that (Article 10), assembly and association after (Article 14), each written just as briefly. The other half is supplied by Article 7: all citizens, irrespective of sex, religion, race, class or party affiliation, shall be equal before the law. Taiwan's constitution therefore handles religion with one article for freedom and one for equality, rather than by prescribing what the state may not do, as Japan and Brazil do. A short article does not mean a simple arrangement — the boundary between religion and government in Taiwan has largely grown out of later statutes and judicial interpretation, not been drawn by the constitution itself.
What is this topic?
The very first line of Article 29 of Indonesia's constitution is that the state is based upon belief in the One and Only God. Brazil's Article 19 runs the other way, forbidding the Union, the states and the municipalities to establish religions, subsidise them, or maintain relations of dependence or alliance with them. Japan's Article 20 goes further into detail — no religious organisation may take privileges from the state, and public authorities are kept out of religious teaching and observance altogether — with Article 89 barring public money from religious bodies. The American First Amendment says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. China's Article 36 guarantees freedom of belief but protects "normal religious activities" and states that religious affairs are not subject to foreign domination. India's preamble calls the republic secular, while Article 25 includes the right to *propagate* religion. Taiwan's Article 13 is seven characters long: the people have freedom of religious belief.
Sources and dates
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