프랑스 헌법상 정교분리 원칙의 현대적 의미

The principle of separation of church and state under the current Constitution of the Fifth Republic of France is based on Article 10 of the 1789 Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen and Article 1 of the French Constitution. Such constitutional bases should be understood as a reflection of Loi du 9 décembre 1905 concernant la séparation des Eglises et de l'Etat as well as additional legislations and court cases. Therefore, the principle of separation of church and state of France aims to guarantee individual freedom of conscience and spiritual freedom, and its meaning can be divided into neutrality of state and freedom of conscience. The principle of neutrality of state under the French Constitution requires the state to guarantee equality before law regardless of a person’s national origin, race, or religion as well as the executive power to guarantee complete neutrality to the extent that people do not doubt their neutrality. Related to this, the general tendency of the judgments of Conseil d'Etat require strict neutrality on the part of all public servants in charge of public affairs, and such position of the Conseil d'Etat seems to extend to private persons performing public duties. Moreover, the freedom of conscience means that the state must recognize that each individual essentially possesses the right to choose the direction of his or her life in pursuit of truth. Thus, individual citizens who are legally equal, have the right to choose their spiritual or religious conscience and the state cannot decide on the priorities among those choices of individuals.