Atlas Trail
Religion Before the Law: Four States, Four Answers
Eight stops across four legal traditions asking the same underlying question, how does the state respond to a minority or new religious movement, and returning four different answers: Taiwan's courts vindicating a qigong master-disciple tradition against a tax theory, Russia's courts banning Jehovah's Witnesses outright as extremist, South Korea's constitutional court carving out a legal alternative to conscription for conscience, and Japan's courts dissolving a church's legal status through civil tort findings rather than a criminal case.
Stop 1 of 8.
Landmark Cases
Tai Ji Men Case (Taiwan, decided July 13, 2007): a ten-year fraud and tax prosecution over gifts a qigong academy's disciples gave their master ends in a final acquittal treating the gifts as genuine, not disguised tuition.
Stop 2 of 8.
Courts
Supreme Court of the Republic of China: Taiwan's court of last resort in ordinary criminal and civil cases, seated in Taipei, whose 2007 ruling closed the Tai Ji Men case for good.
Stop 3 of 8.
Landmark Cases
Jehovah's Witnesses Extremism Case (Russia, decided April 20, 2017): the opposite outcome, a nationwide liquidation of the movement's entire legal structure as an extremist organization, later found to violate human rights law by the European Court of Human Rights.
Stop 4 of 8.
Courts
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation: Russia's highest court of general jurisdiction, whose original jurisdiction over Justice Ministry extremism petitions made the 2017 liquidation possible in a single ruling.
Stop 5 of 8.
Landmark Cases
South Korea Conscientious Objection Case (decided June 28, 2018): a constitutional court finds no legal alternative to armed service violates freedom of conscience, without decriminalizing refusal itself, ending decades of imprisoning mostly Jehovah's Witnesses objectors.
Stop 6 of 8.
Courts
Constitutional Court of Korea: South Korea's specialized court for constitutional adjudication, whose 2018 ruling ordered the National Assembly to legislate the alternative service the government had refused for decades.
Stop 7 of 8.
Landmark Cases
Unification Church Dissolution Case (Japan, decided March 25, 2025): the most recent stop, a court dissolving a religious corporation's legal status for the first time on civil tort findings rather than a criminal conviction.
Stop 8 of 8.
Courts
Tokyo District Court: the court of first instance whose Article 81 dissolution power, previously used only against Aum Shinrikyo and Myokakuji temple, reached the Unification Church in 2025.
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