Interessi e interessi legittimi nel diritto privato - Abstract tesi di laurea

The dynamic relationship between authority and freedom is the leitmotiv of the thesis, which is an experimental work with interdisciplinary vocation, border line between civil and administrative law. The juridical issue, tipically Italian, below the speech about “interesse legittimo” is the problem of the existence, in a democratic system based upon the principle of solidarity, of legal tools which allow an effective control over the use of the administrative power, by the administered subject. The question of “interesse legittimo” has its former origin in the relationship between citizen and public administration. For this reason, the topic traditionally belongs to the study of public law. The public subject has in fact the power to decide in a discretionary way about some particular situations of private interest; let us think e.g. of all those administrative provisions like authorizations, permissions or licenses, which could be given or, otherwise, denied: in other words, the public subject is, by its nature, in the position to affect to some extent the citizens's freedom. The essence of public discretion is to be searched in the faculty to realize or sacrify the private interest. An “interesse legittimo” represents a limit for such a discretion: this must be used by the Administration in compliance to law and good faith, in order to not cause damages to the citizens. But, is it possible, in terms of theoretical compatibility and practical utility, to operate a translation of these dynamics of supremacy / submission, tipical of the relationships between State and citizen, regulated by public law, to the relationships among private subjects, regulated by private law? In fact, it is not difficult to consider that similar dynamics can be appreciated in Family law (in the relationship between the family and the minor), Labour law (between employer and employee) and Company law (between majority and minority in the governance of the companies): in all these examples, the “weak” subject of the relationship must be safeguarded from possible abuses of the subject which is in a position of authority. Thus, the protection offered to that situation which in public law is called “interesse legittimo” could represent a good model to protect, even in the field of private law, some specific situations, which can be realized exclusively through a lawful, just and rational use of the authority’s discretion.