Religious freedom is, in various legal documents, stipulated as a fundamental legal right. The European Convention on Human Rights prescribes that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. When we glance through the constitutions of countries of western legal order, we find that most of them prescribe freedom of religion as a fundamental right. However, there are authors who argue that freedom of religion does not warrant protection by a special right. Their principal argument is that the right to freedom of religion can be derived from more basic rights, and that this right should be protected as a right derived from such rights. The aim of this paper is to determine whether freedom of religion merits protection as a fundamental legal right or should it be protected as a derived right in which case it should be protected while protecting other fundamental rights such as the right to freedom of thought or conscience.

中文翻译：

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宗教自由权保障作为一项基本人权吗？

在各种法律文件中，宗教自由被规定为一项基本法律权利。《欧洲人权公约》规定，人人有权享有思想，良心和宗教自由。当我们浏览西方法律秩序国家的宪法时，我们发现其中大多数将宗教自由规定为一项基本权利。但是，有些作者认为宗教自由并不能得到特殊权利的保护。他们的主要论点是，宗教自由权可以源自更基本的权利，应将这种权利保护为源自这些权利的权利。