PUBLIC LAW. That branch of the law which defines and protects the rights which sub sist between State and subject, as distinguished from that which affects the rights that subsist be tween subject and subject. In public law• the State, which defines and protects the right, is a party interested in or affected by the right, and may, therefore, uphold or extinguish it. The con ception of public law, as opposed to private law. is due to the Roman law, in which the law of crime was included under the same bead: and the civil law of the Continent of Europe retains the same classification.
The field of public law may be divided in ac cordance with the same distinctions which apply in the subdivision of private law; and the same distinctions may be made between substantive and adjective law. rights in rem and rights in per sonae:, rights antecedent and remedial, and rights normal and abnormal. The connection and recip rocal relations of these parts of the public law ' to each other have not yet become well settled; and . among modern civil law• jurists they have been very differently and rather loosely treated.
The topics under which public law• is most commonly treated are: constitutional law•. or that which defines the form of government; adminis trative law, or that branch which prescribes the manner In which the various political powers of the State shall be exercised within the Constitu tion: criminal law, or that branch which contains the rule, affecting injuries to itself and disobedi ence to the rules laid down for the common wel fare. and the penalties to be inflicted for viola tions of the same; and criminal procedure, also called adjective criminal law, or those rules of law affecting the bringing of criminals to justice.
Besides these usual subdivisions of public law two other important divisions have been made comprising the quasi rights and quasi duties of the State as a juristic or person against Or in favor of natural persons. and the procedure relating to the State in this capacity. or the body of law prescribing the mode in which the State may sue and be sued. These rights of the State are irrespective of. and in addition to. those which belong to the right of eminent domain, and are those which govern it, as. for instance, a landed proprietor, the owner of personal property used in or about public buildings or of manu facturing establishments, a contractor in engi neering operation. a banker issuing promissory notes, a legatee under a will. etc. Its rights and liabilities under many of these heads are different from those of individuals or other artificial per sons, especially with reference to liabilities for in juries done by its servants, and as to the barring of its rights by prescription. The procedure pro vided for when the State is a party is not tially the same for both the parties, as in private law; but is relatively abnormal, and takes differ ent forms according to whether the suit is against the subject by the State, or vice versa.
For a discussion of the details of the various branches of public law see the titles CONSTITU TIONAL LAW; ADMINISTRATIVE LAW; LAW, CRIMI NAL; PROCEDURE; PLEADING; COURTS: etc., and consult the authorities referred to under those titles.