The Russian Orthodox Church’s transnational judicial activism. Capitalising on global conservative networks?

A growing literature has emphasised the emergence of a transnational conservative advocacy network that has fuelled a global backlash against political and legal liberalisation. Examining the role that this network plays in the Russian Orthodox Church?s judicial activism, this article traces various episodes of legal mobilisation at the European Court of Human Rights involving the Church alongside conservative non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from different religious backgrounds. I argue that the rise of transnational advocacy groups, and more specifically the expansion of Christian conservative NGOs from the US to Europe, has opened new access points for the Russian Orthodox Church to channel its religious and moral agenda into the transnational legal field. More generally, I suggest that capitalising on expanding NGO networks can be crucial for established churches to reach into highly institutionalised and formalised fields such as the judicial one. A new form of conservative ecumenism can thus help promoting Russian interests and religious moral views at the transnational level. Inversely, the Russian Orthodox Church?at times?has equipped conservative Christian actors with additional political capital, allowing them to widen their sphere of influence as well. These dynamics notwithstanding, the ecumenical collaboration also appears limited by both political and structural factors. Such limitations remain underexplored in the existing literature but are important when appreciating the weight of a global conservative alliance in international politics.