Individual Interests as a Foundation of Public Interest

Abstract

The article aims to disclose the problem of defining the concept of public interest in law from the perspectives of subjects and objects of public interest. The first chapter of the article deals with an analysis of the interrelation and interdependence between need and interest. Legal interest is described as a legally protected conscious aspiration of an objectively existing good, which can satisfy a person's need, by using legal measures. The author of the article stresses two main elements without which no interest can exist. These elements are: a subject having particular interest and an object of an interest (certain values). In author's opinion, interests are what binds a person with the society, makes him social. In the second chapter of the article, the author analyzes the subjects of public interest. The author states that society is only one of the subjects of public interest, because the accomplishment or satisfaction of a society's interests is not always a sufficient condition for the accomplishment or satisfaction of individual or state interests. The same is to be said about state interests in relation with the interests of a society and an individual.