The right to access information: balancing public and private interests

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the subjective right of access to information. The authors set themselves the goal of examining this right through the prism of a balance of public and private interests. The basic views on the relationship between private and public interests are set out in the work by analyzing the judicial practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on disputes related to the exercise of the right of access to information. The relevance of the study is due to the problem of disproportionate restrictions on the right of access to information observed in law enforcement practice, the lack of an unambiguous solution to the issue of a combination of public and private interests in legal science, as well as the aggravation of the international political situation. The subject of the study is the judicial practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation related to the application of legislation on the right to access to information, the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and other normative legal acts regulating legal relations related to the realization of the right to access to information, as well as the works of domestic legal scholars. The methodological basis of the research was made up of general scientific methods, and from among the special legal methods - the formal legal method. Among the general scientific methods, the work used general logical methods of cognition (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, generalization), as well as a structural and functional method that allowed reflecting the structure of the right to access information and consistently revealing each element. Based on the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the characteristics of the relativity properties of the right to access information in general and its elements – the right to access open information and the right to access information affecting rights, freedoms and legitimate interests are given. According to the results of the study, it was found that the right to access information affecting rights, freedoms and legitimate interests anticipates the realization of other rights and freedoms. And a related right – the right to access open information – gives the information circulating among the general public the property of completeness. In this regard, the restriction of these rights, as well as the right to access information in general, is possible as an exceptional measure, taking into account the balance of interests of the individual, society and the state.