Trumpulis, Ugnius

The present doctoral dissertation deals with an analysis of public interest and its impact on the establishment and implementation of administrative legal regulation protecting personal rights and freedoms. In this paper, the author identifies the elements of public interest, analyses the problems of the identification of the subjects and objects of public interest. The elements of public interest are analysed both separately and in relation with each other, providing the grounds for stating that overestimation of a single element creates preconditions for a faulty understanding of public interest and its functions in administrative law and, at the same time, impedes its implementation and protection. The author states that public interest in a democratic rule-of-law state is, first of all, directed to the human being. At the same time the human being as the fundamental value is also a criterion of interest coordination in their competition. The author of the dissertation also explores different conceptions of public interest and attempts to answer the question which of the conceptions defines the category of public interest in a democratic rule-of-law state the most explicitly. On the basis of the analysis of the conceptions of public interest, the author identifies the functions of this interest in administrative law, establishes and analyses the principles describing the nature of public interest and concretising its functions. It is claimed that namely on the basis of the identified principles public interest is usually protected and defended. The author states that the application of mediation for the resolution of disputes and conflicts in the sphere regulated by administrative law is a possible and potentially effective measure for the identification, implementation and protection of public interest. At the same time, the need for the application of mediation for the resolution of administrative disputes and conflicts is justified.