PUBLIC

Pertaining to a state, nation, or whole community; proceeding from, reP lating to, or aftecting the whole body of people or an entire community. Open to all; notorious. Common to all or many; general; open to common use. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt. 786, 14 Am. Rep. 640; Crane v. Waters (C. C.) 10 Fed. 621; Austin v. Soule, 36 Vt; 650; Appeal of Eliot, 74 Conn. 586, 51 Atl. 558; O'Hara v. Miller, 1 Kulp (Pa.) 295. A distinction hwi been made between the terms "public" and "general." They are sometimes used as synonymous. The former term is applied strictly to tha.t which concerns all the citizens and every member of the state; while the latter includes a le er, though still a large, portion of the community. 1 Green!. Ev. § 128. As a noun, the word "public" denotes the whole body politic, or the aggregate of the citizens of a state, district, or municipality. Knight v. Thomas, 98 Me. 494, 45 Atl. 499; State v. Luce, 9 Houst. (Del.) 396, 32 Atl. 1076; Wyatt v. Irrigation Co., 1 Colo. App. 480, 29 Pac. 906. -Public appointment■, Public offices or stations which are to be filled_by the appointment of individuals, under authority of law, instead of by election.-Publio building. One of which the po e ion and use, as well as the p;roperty in it, are in the public. Pancowit v. Troth, 34 N. J. Law, 383.-Publio law. 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 en-,or cement of rights in cases where the state ie regarded as the subject of the right or object of the duty,-including criminal law and. criminal procedure,-and the law of the state, con· sidered in its quasi private I/ersonality, •· 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 contra.distinguished from a privat4! law, affecting only an individual or a small number of persons. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt. 773, 14 Am. Rep. 640.-Public offeuse. A public offense is an act or omi ion forbidden by law, and punishable as b7 law provided. Code Ala. 1886, I 3699. Ford v. Sta.tei 7 Ind. ~.PP• 567, 36 N. ·E. 34; State v. Canbeny, M Minn. 1, 24 N. W. 468. -Public paHage, A right, 1ubslsth1g in the public, to p8.811 over a bod7 of water, whether • the land Wlder It be public or 'owned by a printe peraon.-Pabllo plao~. A place to which '11a pnera1 public l:1u a ~ht to. NOrt. not [s. 970]