Internal and External Church Law in Modern Science of Canon Law

In pre-revolutionary Russian science of Сanon Law, the terms ‘Canon Law’ and ‘Church Law’ were mostly considered synonymous when referring to the Orthodox Church. The reason for such terminological synonymy was the specificity of the legal system of the Russian Empire, within which both the Church and the State could be material sources of the internal regulations of the Church. In that historical paradigm, the term ‘Canon law’ was rather supplementary, yielding primacy to the term ‘Church Law’, and was in fact a “floating” concept without a strictly fixed meaning — a property that still remains typical of it today. Nevertheless, the radical transformation of the legal status of the Church in the modern era creates conditions for the rethinking of this term and filling it with relevant meaningful content including various legal systems, both ecclesiastical and secular. The article continues the discussion on the relationship between Church Law and State Law within the framework of Canon Law, as well as on the place of State Law regulating the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in the state, within the context of these concepts in the modern period. The article is based on the report presented by the author at the 9th Barsov Readings (St. Petersburg Theological Academy, 12.05.2025).