Abstract
The article aims to analyze the principle of supremacy of public interest over the private in the context of administrative law. It uses as a premise a contemporary vision, by matching the traditional perspective with the criticism that has been conferred on the idea of supremacy of the public interest. Its main focus is to demonstrate how should be done a correct application of the principle under a hermeneutical perspective. It makes an opposition to a liberal vision of the fundamentals of the administrative law. It concludes by understanding that the public interest is at the core of a correct conception of the welfare State, as well as its supremacy is the essence of the “Brazilian social administrative law”. These are the reasons why the criticism of this principle, as well as the criticism of a subsidiary vision of administrative law, become absolutely misguided, that is, based on private interest as a legal ground.
Keywords:
public interest; principle of supremacy of public interest; Welfare State; Administrative Law; constitutional principles