INTRODUCTION

The present era of human rights shows, among other things, that constitutionally protected fundamental rights act as strong arguments in an increasing number of legal disputes. However, together with the continuing judicialisation and constitutionalisation of law, a number of court decisions referring to fundamental rights bring their kind of scepticism. Actually, human rights alone cannot provide adequate solutions to all social problems and disputes. The various global crises of the last two decades (financial, refugee, health, environmental) clearly show that we must pay due attention not only to individual rights but also to public interests.

The aim of this chapter is to answer the question: What role do public interests play in cases where fundamental rights are applied? This is linked to the second question of what constitutes a public interest in the disputes in which fundamental rights come into play? Is it contrary to individual rights, or is the protection of fundamental rights also a public interest, as well as various restrictions on fundamental rights in the public interest? The answers to these questions are not only theoretical; they also concern the practical question of how to balance fundamental rights and public interests, which will also be addressed in this chapter.

The key concept not only of this chapter is the concept of a public interest. This introduction will therefore focus on it. Firstly, the author believes that, in the case of public interest, this is an abstract and theoretical term, the content and meaning of which are not defined in a positive law, but in a doctrine. This is also linked to the distinction between the general public interest and specific public interests in constitutional law.

As far as the specific public interests in constitutional law are concerned, here the author agrees with the conception of the German author Josef Isensee, who understands public interests as ideal goods that the people care about and seek. The existence of a particular public interest is a necessary, although not sufficient, condition of the admissibility of the conduct of the state or a public authority.