public law

A general classification of law, consisting generally of constitutional, administrative, criminal and international law, concerned with the organization of the state, the relations between the state and the people who compose it, the responsibilities of public officers to the state, to each other, and to private persons, and the relations of states to one other. The 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. (Source: WESTS)