Legal good

In the civil law tradition, a legal good is an interest or right that the legal system protects. Legal goods are a central concern of criminal law, and according to some theories the state can legitimately punish conduct only if it interferes with a legal good established in fundamental principles of law, such as a constitution. The term is also rendered in English as legally protected good, legal interest, legally protected interest or object of legal protection. The concept was developed by theorists of German criminal law in the nineteenth century and has since been adopted, with other aspects of German criminal theory, in many legal systems of Europe, Latin America and East Asia. It is not generally used in the common law tradition, where the harm principle plays a broadly analogous role. Legal goods are classified in various ways, for example into individual goods that the individual can often waive and collective goods that cannot be waived.