Summary

The definition of public order has been a topic of discussion in Estonia for at least the last ten years. It seems like it has become one of the most controversial issues discussed among legal practitioners interested in Estonian administrative law, maybe even the topic closest to their hearts. Not too long ago the concept of public order was established with a formal legal provision established within the meaning of threat-countering law in the Estonian legal order, and defined in the Law Enforcement Act (§ 4). However, there are still numerous key challenges and issues regarding the concept of public order, and bringing these problems to wider attention in the Estonian legal area is the broader objective of this article. The article analyses the important and continually topical legal issues pertaining the § 4 of the Law Enforcement Act. At that, the first part of the article opens with a history of the concept of public order and the second part views the elements that the established concept consists of. The article also uses the comparative method because the initial definition of public order was proposed in the draft Law Enforcement Act by German legal practitioners (the reference material mostly comes from the German legal space throughout).