INTRODTJCTION.  3

respect  to  such  act  of  obedience,  and  in  respect  to  his  duty  to
obey,  a  private  person ;  and  every  commandment  in  a  civil
society  primarily  flows  from  the  totality  of  its  members,  —
from  the  public,  —  but  is  formally  uttered  by  some  repre-
sentatives of  that  totality,  be  these  representatives  monarchs,
hereditary  or  elected  delegates,  or  electors  who  choose  these
delegates.  The  Public  Law,  therefore,  embraces  all  those
precepts  which  impose  duties  or  confer  rights  upon  the  politi-
cal superiors  in  the  state,  supreme  or  subordinate  ;  upon  those
who  organically  represent  the  state  as  a  body  politic.  Those
rules  which  control  the  subject  members  of  the  state  in  their
relations  with  the  whole  body,  ought  in  strictness  to  be  ranged
in  the  Private  Law ;  but  as  these  relations  are  public  in  their
nature,  the  rules  themselves  are  also  considered  as  a  part  of
the  Public  Law.
§  5.  A  conception  of  the  Public  Law  as  a  distinct  division
of  the  entire  bpdy  of  jurisprudence  will  be  made  clearer  by
ascertaining  what  great  departments  are  included  in  the  Pri-
vate Law.     These  departments  may  be  thus  enumerated :

1st.  The  Civil  Law  proper  (droit  civil,  Civilrecht) ;  con-
sisting of  (a)  the  Law  as  to  Persons  (^jura  personarwm)  ;
(b)  the  Law  as  to  Things  (^jura  rerurn)  ;  (c)  the  Law  as  to
Obligations.
2d.  Ecclesiastical  Law  (/ms  ecclesiasticum)  in  those  coun-
tries where  the  Church  is  regarded  as  having  a  legal  status,
as  something  more  than  a  voluntary  association.  This  sub-
department  does  not  exist  in  the  United  States,  but  does  in
England,  and  generally  throughout  Europe.
3d.  Supervisory  Law  (droit  de  la  Police,  Polizeirecht).
4th.  The  Law  as  to  Crimes  and  Punishments.
