Public Interest Requirements In Charity Law

The charitable purpose is the fundamental of charity, and the public benefit is the soul of charity. In the process of studying charity, we must not only focus on charitable purposes, but also concerned on the public benefit in order to develop a comprehensive charity. The public benefit means two aspects: identified mode and identified standards. Britain is the first country to do research in charity, and the public benefit have a very important position in the UK charity law, after the explore of charity for four centuries, the British charity law introduced the public benefit with two aspects: first, the beneficiaries must be the " most people" who are non-specific(sometimes, there are exceptions). But if the service was did for the disadvantaged minority, it was seen as charity;The second is benefit must be objective, identifiable. The United States has the highest level of development of charity: although there is no charity law, but he makes an explanation on the "charity" through the tax.It means that the country approves a tax-exempt status if a social charitable organization meets the conditions of charity. In addition, some European and Asian countries have identified standards on public benefit, but they all pay more attentions to it. On the identified mode, currently there are five more mainstream authentication mode: the tax authorities, courts, separate departments, the Charity Commission and national agencies working with the Charity Commission. The research on the public benefit in China is very poor, because too little research was did. By analyzing the situation of abroad about public benefit of charity, requirements can provide reference for the legislation of our Charity Law, so the study of foreign-related system is necessary. The last, we can ensure the realization of public benefit through the way of regulating the internal governance and for-profit activities, information disclosure, strengthening the administrative supervision to ensure the realization of public benefit. Through the improvement of the identification mode and of public benefit and standard, we can define charity better with the charitable purposes and public benefit.