Das öffentliche Interesse

Legal elements of a rule often refer to the public interest or related concepts. Even in those cases in which the law does not mention the public interest, judicial decisions and legal doctrines often use this concept as a decisive criterion in dogmatic theories. How is it possible to determine what the public interest is when it appears in the law or in a dogmatic theory? Robert Uerpmann looks for rules and shows that a basic separation of public and private interests, often assumed to be a part of the legal system, is in fact unknown in this system. The concept of public interest begins to take shape when seen within the framework of the rules governing competence. It proves to be an instrument which divides complex decision-making processes and allocates decision-making powers to individual institutions. In order to determine which individual legal consequence is in the public interest, it is also necessary to balance the various interests involved.