What is Public Law?

Legal Definition
Public law (lat. ius publicum) is that part of law which governs relationships between individuals and the government, and those relationships between individuals which are of direct concern to society. Public law comprises constitutional law, administrative law, tax law and criminal law, as well as all procedural law. In public law, mandatory rules prevail. Laws concerning relationships between individuals belong to private law.




-- Wikipedia
Legal Definition
The laws that cover administration, constitution and criminal acts. It controls the actions betwen the citizens of the state and the state itself. It deals with the governments operation and structure.
Legal Definition
That branch or department of law which is concerned with the state in its political or sovereign capacity, including constitutional and administrative law, and with the definition, regulation, and enforcement of rights in cases where the state is regarded as the subject of the right or object of the duty,---including criminal law and criminal procedure,--and the law of the state, considered in its quasi private personality, i. e., as capable of holding or exercising rights, or acquiring and dealing with property, in the character of an individual. See Holl. Jur. 106, 300. That portion of law which is concerned with political conditions; that is to say, with the powers, rights, duties, capacities, and incapacities which are peculiar to political superiors, supreme and subordinate. Aust. Jur. "Public law," in one sense, is a designation given to "international law," as distinguished from the laws of a particular nation or state. In another sense, a law or statute that applies to the people generally of the nation or state adopting or enacting it, is denominated a public law, as contradistinguished from a private law, affeeting only an individual or a small number of persons. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt. 773, 14 Am. Rep. 640.
-- Black's Law Dictionary
Legal Definition
-- Bouviers Law Dictionary
Legal Definition
International law; criminal law.
-- Ballentine's Law Dictionary