Public interests and private relationships are closely intertwined. On the one hand, public interests are not only regulated by public powers but also by private actors. On the other hand, private regulations bear numerous limitations for the sake of public interests. Thus one might say that private relationships contribute to the governance of public interests, and are at the same time governed by them.
The public interests affecting a certain type of private relationship are numerous and often conflicting with each other. The essence of governance is balancing the public and private interests involved in a certain social situation, and the essence of good governance is finding the best balance.
New limits
More and more sectors of society are to a large extent governed by private parties’ self-regulation or co-regulation or subject to specific public regulatory regimes. With this blurring and mixing of regulatory modes in order to secure a diverse set of private and public interests, conflicts arise easily. Private autonomy finds new limits in (semi-)public regulations, while public interests only to a certain extent can be left to private governance. The limitations to private rights and private autonomy imposed by the law in the name of the public interest could be set by state or non-state law, by public powers or by private entities by means of contracts, general standard terms, codes of conduct, etc.
Interactions
Public interests and private relationships interact in many ways, at both the national and international level. One of these interactions at the international level touches upon the very foundation of conflict of laws. Under certain circumstances, a national regulation of private relationships finds application also in other countries. Thus indirectly, the public/private governance aspects of a national regulation affect also other countries, what could raise justification problems. Private actors, e.g. multinational corporations or NGO’s, play an important role also in the field of public international law and/or global governance. One of the issues arising in this regard is to what extent human rights norms should pose obligations upon private actors.
Sub-questions
The core research question addressed by this programme is how good governance could be best realised in regulating the public interest aspects of private relationships. This implies a number of sub-questions, including:
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If conflicting public interests are at stake in the regulation of a private relationship, how could they be best balanced against each other?
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How could the appropriateness and effectiveness of a certain public-interest based limitation to private autonomy be best assessed, by taking into account both economic and non-economic interests?
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How could democracy, human rights and the rule of law be best safeguarded in non-state law, private self-regulation, privatised public services, and other private governance phenomena?
This programme focuses on the national, supranational, international and comparative law and governance of private relationships in six main areas: property, tort, contract, corporation, family and religion.
