Balancing Public and Private Interests
Sometimes a tension can arise between the public and private interest. For instance the situation in which the government interferes with the rearing of children in order to avoid socially undesirable behavior. On the other hand, public and private interests can also strengthen each other. For example when protecting minors, consumers, employees, shareholders or victims of physical injury.
The overarching question in the research programme deals with how we can find a balance between contradictory and corresponding public and private interests. In order to answer this question, research is carried out in the following subfields:
- government and private life
- the social playing field
- commercial markets
- markets in which the government is an important actor
The research program Balancing Public and Private Interests has started on 1 January 2008. Since 16 November 2009, the research is conducted by the VU Amsterdam Centre for Law and Governance (VU CLG), which is one of the coordinators of the Netherlands Institute for Law and Governance (NILG).
