Private law


Private law is the part of a legal system that governs interactions between individual persons. It is distinguished from public law, which deals with relationships between both natural and artificial persons and the state, including regulatory statutes, penal law and other law that affects the public order. In general terms, private law involves interactions between private individuals, whereas public law involves interrelations between the state and the general population. In legal systems of the civil law tradition, it is that part of the jus commune that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts and torts, and the law of obligations.

History

One of the five capital lawyers in Roman law, Domitius Ulpianus, – who differentiated ius publicum from ius privatum – the European, more exactly the continental law, philosophers and thinkers want to put each branch of law into this dichotomy: Public and Private Law. "huius studdii duæ sunt positiones: publicum et privatum. Publicum ius est, quod statum rei Romanæ spectat, privatum, quod ad singulorum utilitatem; sunt enim quædam publice utila, quædam privatim".
The plebiscite lex Aquilia codified the law on damage to person and property through a particular fault. It is a forerunner of the modern law of tort. Other forms of private law included:
  • Stipulatio: the basic form of contract in Roman law. It was made in the format of question and answer. The precise nature of the contract was disputed, as can be seen below.
  • Rei vindicatio: a legal action by which the plaintiff demands that the defendant return a thing that belongs to the plaintiff. It may only be used when plaintiff owns the thing, and the defendant is somehow impeding the plaintiff's possession of the thing. The plaintiff could also institute an actio furti in order to punish the defendant. If the thing could not be recovered, the plaintiff could claim damages from the defendant with the aid of the condictio furtiva. With the aid of the actio legis Aquiliae, the plaintiff could claim damages from the defendant. Rei vindicatio was derived from the ius civile, therefore was only available to Roman citizens.
In the modern era, Charles-Louis Montesquieu amplified supremely this distinction: International, Public and Private Law, in his major work: The Spirit of the Law. "Considered as inhabitants of so great a planet, which necessarily contains a variety of nations, they have laws relating to their mutual intercourse, which is what we call the law of nations. As members of a society that must be properly supported, they have laws relating to the governors and the governed, and this we distinguish by the name of politic law. They have also another sort of law, as they stand in relation to each other; by which is understood the civil law."

Private law in common law jurisdictions

The concept of private law in common law countries is somewhat broader, as it also encompasses private relationships between governments and individuals or other entities. In other words, relationships between governments and individuals based on contract or tort law are governed by private law and fall outside the scope of public law.

European Union law

The European Commission and the European Council have stated a desire to achieve greater approximation of private law across its 27 member states of the European Union, including within the fields of contract law, property law and family law. In regard to contract law, it the Commission and Council have argued that there are problems resulting from divergences in this field of law across the EU, and in regard to family law, the Council suggests that this field is "a possible subject for a discussion on... approximation".

Areas of private law