SOURCES AND PRINCIPLES OF PERUVIAN ECCLESIASTICAL LAW

Considering the importance of a right such as that of religious freedom to guarantee harmonious coexistence in a plural society, and aware that there are more and more frequent cases in which the protection of this right is judicialized, the need arises for the legal operator use adequate interpretation tools to resolve religious conflicts. This work describes the structural elements of ecclesiastical law as a legal discipline called upon to act in these cases. Special attention is paid to the characteristics of its system of sources and to the application of the principles that shape the Peruvian model of relations between the state and the confessions, in order to help the legal operator in this argumentation function in those cases in which that the right to religious freedom comes into play. It is anticipated as a conclusion that there is a large field of action for ecclesiastical law in Peru since the legal effects of the old state confessional model have not yet been erased and, above all, because of legislative advances that are not consistent with this principle of cooperation that now structures the model.