This article analyzes public interest law in the context of Central and Eastern Europe from two perspectives: its conceptual foundation and the practical implications for strategies to protect human rights and promote democracy. The article ultimately concludes that the meaning of public interest is less important than the question of who gets to participate in the process of defining it and through what means. The article generalizes beyond the American case and differentiates three overlapping conceptions of public interest law: social, substantive and process-based. A number of strategic objectives derive from that analysis: developing greater use of legal instruments by civil society organizations in order to strengthen discourse in the public sphere; bringing together theory and practice in higher legal education; and fostering cooperation among different stakeholders, such as bar associations, courts, state bodies and NGOs, in order to strengthen the provision of free legal assistance in the interest of equal access to justice for all.