Wolność tworzenia związków wyznaniowych w Polsce – przypadek niezależnych gmin wyznaniowych żydowskich

This article analyses the issue of the registration of independent Jewish religious communities, i.e., Jewish religious communities unaffiliated with the Association of Jewish Communities in Poland (AJCP). For several years, the possibility of establishing independent Jewish religious communities has been challenged by the AJCP, which claims that the Act on the State’s Relationship with Jewish Religious Communities in Poland exhaustively regulates the legal situation of all Jewish communities in Poland. In a number of Supreme Administrative Court’s decisions on disputes between independent Jewish religious communities and the AJCP, the possibility of registering independent Jewish religious communities has been confirmed. In addition, the Supreme Administrative Court developed a test for assessing the identity or separateness of two religious associations for the purpose of registering new ones. The article attempts to systematise the elements that constitute this test, referring, inter alia, to the material and formal identity of the internal law, the criteria of membership and the will of the persons forming the religious association. Moreover, the Supreme Administrative Court’s decisions are reviewed from the perspective of compliance with the standard of protection of freedom of conscience and religion established by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.