Public interest, general interest and private interest as legal concepts

Abstract

The multifaceted content of public interest pertaining to some subjects of the legal order has not been the subject matter of thorough theoretical consideration in literature, which does not recognize the need to clearly distinguish the concept of public interest from the concepts of general interest and private interest in the legal order of a state governed by laws (Rechtsstaat). There are substantial differences between public interest, general interest and private interest. General interests are dynamic expressions of the general (common) good. Private interests are dynamic expressions of private legal goods of individual subjects of the legal order. Public interest is a relational determinant in the legal order of a state governed by laws. Thus, unlike general interests and private interests as substantial categories, public interest has a relational character, as it serves to regulate relations between legal interests as substantial categories. In the order of a legal state (Rechtsstaat), public interest is a regulatory determinant of various goods and interests, which is anchored in-between general, special and private interests, public and private sphere, publicity and privacy, the interventionism of public authorities and the civil society, the institutional order of the public authority and the institutional order of the territorial.