| The original value of legal interest lies in the protection of individual freedom and the core of collective legal interest is to maintain order. Collective legal interest appears to be in an entanglement with personal freedom, but they are not completely opposite to each other. Real and stable individual freedom can be realized only through various institutional arrangements in society. The internal logic of freedom determines that, by protecting collective legal interests, the criminal law usually also upholds individual freedom and constitutes the necessary external social conditions for free development. Because the traditional criminal law, which is centered on the protection of personal legal interest, cannot effectively respond to the various risks and challenges of modern social life, the protection of collective legal interest is expanding in modern criminal law. It is not advisable to exaggerate the abstractness and ambiguity of collective legal interest and completely deny the necessity and legitimacy of criminal law expansion. However, collective legal interest is not only the interest of the people, but also has a potential of instrumental extension. The image and function of collective legal interest still need cautious thinking. The ease of the tension between collective and individual legal interests can be achieved by embedding factors of personal legal interest as an entry-level condition for criminal law protection, so as to highlight the contours and boundaries of collective legal interests in a society ruled by law. In this sense, collective legal interest can also play a critical role in preventing the over-expansion of criminal law protection. |
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