Also known as: jus publicum · ius publicum · public law
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A body of law that governs relations between the state and individuals or regulates matters of public concern. It stands in contrast to private agreements or servitudes that parties may attempt to create by contract.
An undercover campus officer posed as a struggling student and spent weeks persuading adjunct professor Dixie to sell exam answers. The officer falsely claimed the conduct qualified as permitted advanced tutoring under university policy. Because the inducement came from a public law enforcement official acting to obtain evidence, the entrapment defense under publicum jus principles applied and Dixie was acquitted.
Private captors seized an enemy vessel during wartime and sought condemnation for their own benefit. The court applied publicum jus rules and directed condemnation to the crown instead, holding that private subjects lack authority to seize enemy property without sovereign commission.
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Mitchell obtained a judgment against nonresident Neff by serving process through publication on land located in Oregon. The court upheld the judgment under publicum jus principles authorizing in rem jurisdiction over property within the state, even without personal service on the owner.
A Cuban bank nationalized sugar owned by a U.S. firm and sold it abroad. When the firm sued the bank in U.S. court, the Supreme Court applied publicum jus principles under the act of state doctrine and refused to question the validity of the foreign government's expropriation decree.
A bondholder sued the State of Louisiana in federal court to recover on state-issued bonds. The Supreme Court held that publicum jus principles embodied in sovereign immunity barred the suit, even though the Eleventh Amendment did not expressly mention suits by a state's own citizens.
White firefighters challenged a consent decree resolving a Title VII suit brought by Black applicants. The Court applied publicum jus rules governing intervention and held that the white firefighters could not be bound by the decree because they had not been made parties to the original litigation.
Publicum jus consists of rights created by statute or permit, such as water priorities under prior-appropriation doctrine. These rights cannot be converted into running servitudes by private agreement because they originate in public law rather than private covenant.
Entrapment occurs when a public law enforcement official induces an offense by making knowingly false representations that the conduct is not prohibited or by using methods that create a substantial risk the offense will be committed by persons not already ready to commit it.
Allowing private covenants to alter statutory priorities would undermine the certainty and public control that the prior-appropriation regime is designed to provide. Record notice alone cannot confer servitude status on interests placed beyond private servitudes by state law.
Yes. Courts apply the act of state doctrine as a publicum jus principle and decline to question the validity of a recognized foreign government's official acts taken within its territory.
Sovereign immunity bars suits against a state by its own citizens in federal court even when the Eleventh Amendment does not expressly address such suits, because the immunity is a fundamental attribute of public law.
…States are not truly independent sovereigns, Mr. Justice Field found that their jurisdiction was defined by the "principles of public law" that regulate the relationships among independent nations. The first of those principles was "that every State possesses exclusive jurisdiction and sovereignty over persons and property…