The principle of the balance of interests in the European court of human rights’ opinions

Purpose: Analysis of European Court of Human Rights’ practice of using the principle of balance of interests. Methods: A methodological basis of this study is the dialectical method and a set of universal methods of scientific knowledge (system research methods, structural-functional analysis, methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, abstraction) and private-scientific methods of legal research: formal legal. Results: The author concludes that the balance of interests is such a state of a legal relation, in which rights and duties of its parties are proportional and they have equal capacities for realizing their legal interests. Novelty/originality/value: Article possesses the high scientific value as is one of the first attempts to analyze the European Court of Human Rights’ practice of using the principle of balance of interests.