We explain what private law is and what its branches are. Also, the differences between public law and private law.
What is private law?
Private law is a branch of the positive law (the one explicitly contemplated in the laws and written legal bodies) that is dedicated to the regulation of the different activities and relationships between the citizens individuals, starting from a situation of legal equality between them.
Private law is distinguished from public law, which deals with the relations of the Condition, although the situations in which the public administration act as a private individual (and not as the normative state). This distinction between the two streams of right dates from ancient times (the jurisprudence of the Roman Empire) and is fundamental for the systematization of law as we understand it today.
This branch of law is governed by two fundamental precepts, which are:
- Autonomy of will. It stipulates that interactions between persons, in the pursuit of their own interests, they are carried out of their own free will, without the presence of coercion, deception, violence or obligation. Only then can they have legal force, as long as they do not contradict what is established in any legal order.
- Equality before the law. In private acts, subjects of law are subject to the same legal framework and are at a point of equality before the lawIn other words, no one escapes its designs nor can they demand anything from the other without an agreement of wills.
Branches of private law
Private law comprises the following branches or categories:
- Civil law. Also called "common law", it regulates legal relationships and transactions between people, as well as what involves their rights, freedoms, patrimonies or transmission of these.
- Commercial law. It governs commercial transactions and exchanges of goods and services for money.
- Labor law. Control and order the relationships between patterns and workers.
- Rural law. It regulates the affairs of life in the countryside and agricultural production.
- Private international right. Regulates commercial transactions that occur between States and individuals from other nations, or between two States acting as individuals.
Differences between public and private law
The fundamental difference between public and private law, as we said, lies in the presence of the State. In principle, if the actions concern the State or the public administration, it will be an act of public law; Whereas if they involve two or more individuals, matters of a personal or patrimonial nature of third parties, it will be an act of private law.
This means, in concrete terms, that rules promulgated by public law are rules of subordination, since the State is the guarantor of the social pact and is the one who must ensure compliance with the laws and what is established in the National Constitution, including monitoring itself.
On the other hand, the norms of private law are names of coordination, since they serve to agree or regulate the negotiations between two independent and equal parties before the law, to guarantee that neither exercises undue actions on the other.
There is also the possibility that the State itself acts as an individual, buying or selling goods and services, negotiating with other States or with international individuals, etc. In these cases, too, we will speak of private law, since the State will submit as any person to the terms of equality before the law and of autonomy of will.