Law as a Weapon of Counteraction: Legislating on Religious Freedom in the Securitized Ukrainian Context

The paper deals with the implications of treating law as an instrument and religion as a question of state security, from both a majority as well as a minority faith group perspective. Labelled as a “policy of counteraction”, the recent legislative initiatives undertaken by the Ukrainian state, currently at war with Russia, (particularly those affecting the branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church connected to Russia) affect the exercise of freedom of religion or belief. They shift the debate on law-making in connection to fundamental rights protection and the role of the state in socio-legal terms in several ways. Using the theoretical frameworks of legal instrumentalism and lawfare, the paper discusses, first, the use(s) of law within the current war between Russia and Ukraine; second, how recent legislative action related to religious freedoms in Ukraine can be interpreted as part of religious lawfare; third, the implications of religious lawfare for religious diversity management in Ukraine.