종교의 자유의 의미와 한계에 대한 고찰

Most of people are somehow related to religion, whether or not they believe in that religion. Freedom of religious belief, freedom to exercise religious belief, freedom of an assembly and an association within a religious context, freedom of a missionary work and religious education are all a fundamental right. In this article, I reviewed the nature of religion, a legal implication of freedom of religion through the relationship with law and religion, and case studies of United States and Korea. The Lemon test was developed for the test of the separation of church and state in the United States. Also, freedom of religion is guaranteed comprehensively so that the court has developed a doctrine for conscientious objectors. Recently, there has been a strong debate about the limitation of freedom of religion regarding student’s right to freedom of religion and allowance of conscientious objectors. The Supreme Court of Korea ruled that student’s right to freedom of religion should be guaranteed in private high schools, and this decision is persuasive considering that most of high school students are compulsory assigned to high school. However, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court do not allow conscientious objectors and alternative service. It is desirable to consider more comprehensively the issue of conscientious objectors, and further reconsider the limitation of personal religious belief when it is expressed publicly. A more thoughtful review of religion and spiritual freedom will result in a considerable decrease in social conflict.