Relationship between law and religion in the concept of Jacques Maritain

An attempt is being made to conduct an in-depth study of the political and legal views of Jacques Maritain, a leading 20th-century French neothomist, on the problem of the relationship between law and religion. Based on an analysis of the scholar’s criticism of popular legal schools and trends rooted in anthropocentric humanism, realism, and the denial of the transcendent component of state and legal phenomena, as well as his main works, a conclusion is drawn about the specific features of Jacques Maritain’s teaching, which is based on the ideas of “classical thomism” while taking into account the innovations dictated by the objective requirements of modern social transformations that characterize the modern era. The aim of the study was to examine the author’s views on what Maritain considered the ideal interpretation of the natural law concept, which is the foundation of the French neothomist’s understanding of law. A detailed analysis of the thinker’s ideas on human rights, his highlighting of the role of religion in their formation, and Jacques Maritain’s participation in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 all point to the significance of his works and the possibility of reinterpreting them in the modern context.