Summary

The concept of law and order can be one of the legal starting points to the question, in which case the law enforcement authorities (incl. the police) are expected to take steps in the form of state supervision. Besides the theoretical legal discussions, the concept of law and order is also relevant in the daily practical work of law enforcement authorities. The police being overloaded with irrelevant tasks is likely also being perceived as a wide-spread issue in political discussions. While the concept of law and order has been discussed quite a bit in Estonian legal discourse, not much attention has been paid to the issue of whether and to what extent relationships under private law are to be protected as a part of law and order. The article analyses the restriction to the definition of law and order provided in the Law Enforcement Act, according to which law and order dues not usually extend to the fulfilment of the provisions of private law and the protection of a person’s subjective rights and legal rights (subsection 4 (2) of the Law Enforcement Act). The first part of the article starts by briefly addressing the question of whether and how the competence and powers of the police and other law enforcement authorities, and the related workload, relate to the concept of law and order. The second part of the article elaborates on the distinction between private and public law in the context of the law governing the prevention of hazards. The third part of the article contains an analysis of the more specific question of under which conditions do relations under private law become protected by the police as part of law and order. In conclusion, the impact of the concept of law and order on the workload of the police and other law enforcement authorities is analysed and attention is directed to the need to address in greater detail the provisions of private law in the context of the law governing the prevention of hazards in the current legal discussion.