Private law

“ Besides, the public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual's private rights, as modelled by the municipal law. In this, and similar cases the legislature alone can, and indeed frequently does, interpose, and compel the individual to acquiesce. ”

“ Such men alone could be partners in the true ownership of property, or sue and be sued in their own right, [16] and such an exclusive right to a full personality in private law they claimed in virtue of their public services or privileges—the duty of taking the field on horseback or in heavy armour, the right of uplifting their voices in the assembly when they acclaimed a king or ratified a law. ”

“ The agents of legal change, Fictions, Equity, and Legislation, are brought in turn to bear on the primeval institutions, and at every point of the progress, a greater number of personal rights and a larger amount of property are removed from the domestic forum to the cognisance of the public tribunals. The ordinances of the government obtain gradually the same efficacy in private concerns as in matters of state, and are no longer liable to be overridden by the behests of a despot enthroned by each hearthstone. ”

“ The law gives to certain groups of private individuals limited legislative authority touching matters which concern themselves. A railway company, for example, is able to make by-laws for the regulation of its undertaking. A university may make statutes binding upon its members. A registered company may alter those articles of association by which its constitution and management are determined. Legislation thus effected by private persons, and the law so created, may be distinguished as autonomic. ”

“ Private legislation.—Statutes are of two kinds, distinguishable as public and private. The distinguishing characteristic of a public Act is that judicial notice is taken of its existence, and it is therefore one of the sources of the general law. A private Act, on the other hand, is one which, owing to its limited scope, does not fall within the ordinary cognisance of the courts of justice, and will not be applied by them unless specially called to their notice by the parties interested. ”

“ It can therefore be no otherwise produced than by a political union; by the consent of all persons to submit their own private wills to the will of one man, or of one or more assemblies of men, to whom the supreme authority is entrusted: and this will of that one man, or assemblage of men, is in different states, according to their different constitutions, understood to be law. ”

“ Publick faith is the moral principle, called upon to defend monopoly and law charter, under the name of private property. Let us consider what this sanction is in a free government. If the government should solemnly, by law, enter into a contract with a number of individuals, the object of which was to diminish the liberty and wealth of the people, by increasing the power and wealth of the government and these individuals, does publick faith require From the nation a fulfilment of this contract? ”

“ As we have said on more than one occasion, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to give to the terms 'due process of law' a definition which will embrace every permissible exertion of power affecting private rights, and exclude such as are forbidden. ”

“ If we go outside the sphere of private, into that of public law, we find the list of personal rights greatly increased. Citizenship, honours, dignities, and official position in all its innumerable forms pertain to the law of status, not to that of property. ”

“ The phrase "private right of action" is sometimes used in the context of administrative law to refer to a right to challenge administrative action that is explicitly and directly provided by a particular statute, in contrast to a right to challenge administrative action granted only when the statute is read with the gloss of Section 10 (a) of the APA. See, e.g., Lujan v. ”

“ Even vested rights are subject to the law of welfare involved in the original act establishing special privileges. Public use, not private interest, is the true reason for the existence of any such privileges or protection. ”

“ Once a law enters the statute books it is beyond the purview of those who made it, the legislators or the king, and becomes the special, private province of those who operate it. The more numerous and prolix the laws, the more important and the more self-sufficient are the operating specialists. ”

“ The public policy upon which the rule is founded has been said to apply with equal force to the sovereign's demand and the claims of private citizens. Alteration of the law in this respect is a matter for the law making body rather than the courts. ”

“ Whereby any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or may be denied the equal protection of the laws, or whereby private property may be taken without just compensation ”

“ The supervision of the state extends to the lock upon the door, and there begins mine own. The lock is the boundary line between the power of the government and my own private power. It is the intention of locks to make possible self-protection. In my own house my person is sacred and inviolable even to the government. In civil cases government has no right to attack me in my house, but must wait till I am upon public ground. ”

“ The only restraint when the constitution imposes on their authority is, that private property shall not be taken for public use, without just compensation, and the consent of the representatives of the people. ”

“ For the rights for the protection of which our authority is invoked are the rights of sovereignty, of political jurisdiction, of government, of corporate existence as a State, with all its constitutional powers and privileges. No case of private rights or private property infringed, or in danger of actual or threatened infringement, is presented by the bill, in a judicial form, for the judgment of the court. ”

“ The cases need no explanatory or fortifying comment. They demonstrate that a business, by circumstances and its nature, may rise from private to be of public concern, and be subject, in consequence, to governmental regulation. ”

“ The liberty of contract and the right of private property which are protected by the limitations of the constitution are held subject to the police power of government to pass and enforce laws for the protection of the public health, public morals, and public safety. ”

“ The views we have expressed are supported by other adjudged cases, as well as by reason, and by the principles which must be recognized as essential for the protection of private property against the arbitrary action of government. ”

“ If the power exist in the State governments, the power of judging of the reasonableness of its exercise in a given case, and of the degree of necessity generally which justifies the appropriation of private property to public use, must exist there also. ”

“ As a social compact, it ought likewise "to receive the same strict construction, wherever the right of personal liberty, of personal security, or of private property may become the object of dispute; because every person, whose liberty or property was thereby rendered subject to the new government, was antecedently a member of a civil society, to whose regulations he had submitted himself, and under whose authority and protection he still remains, in all cases not expressly submitted to the new government." ”

“ That a court is called upon to enforce public rights and not the interests of private property does not diminish its power to protect such rights. 'Courts of equity may, and frequently do, go much farther both to give and withhold relief in furtherance of the public interest than they are accustomed to go when only private interests are involved.' Virginian Ry. ”

“ That the people have a public interest, a jus publicum, of passage and repassage with their goods by water, and must not be obstructed by nuisances;' 'for the jus privatum of the owner or proprietor is charged with and subject to that jus publicum which belongs to the king's subjects, as the soil of an highway is, which though in point of property it may be a private man's freehold, yet it is charged with a public interest of the people, which may not be prejudiced or damnified.' Id. ”

“ But usually the real significance and legal consequence of each term will depend upon its context and the nature of the interests it is invoked to distinguish.
Statutes may be called public because the rights conferred are of general application, while laws known as private affect few or selected individuals or localities. ”

“ The great elements of public liberty lie in the firm protection of private rights. The great end of political association, in a free government, is to obtain a firm, unwavering protection of our persons and honest earnings. ”

“ Unlike courts, which are concerned primarily with the enforcement of private rights although public interests may thereby be implicated, administrative agencies are predominantly concerned with enforcing public rights although private interests may thereby be affected. ”

“ If the constitution be not altogether waste paper, it has restrained the power of the legislature in these particulars, If it has any meaning, it is, that the legislature shall pass no act, directly and manifestly impairing private property, and private privileges. ”

“ The equivalent prescribed and guarantied by the Constitution is a sure and sufficient security against any abuse of the power: and it certainly is not unreasonable that private rights should yield, on terms of just compensation, to the paramount rights of the public, so far, and to such extent, as the interest and welfare of the public may require, or as may be necessary to effectuate great and useful public purposes. ”

“ It restrains state action, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, within bounds that are consistent with the fundamentals of individual liberty and private property, including the right to be heard where liberty or property is at stake in judicial proceedings. ”

“ State regulation of private enterprise that results in impairment of other constitutional rights should stand on no firmer footing, at least in the area where facilities of a public nature are involved. ”

“ Moreover, the State has the power to transfer property from one to another, when the common good requires this, and the common good requires that civil decisions be based on public evidence rather than on private information. ”

“ For more than a generation now the Court became the ultimate guardian, in the name of the Constitutional Document, of the laissez-faire conception of the proper relation of Government to Private Enterprise, a rather inconstant guardian, however, for its fluctuating membership tipped the scales now in favor of Business, now in favor of Government. ”

“ As, therefore, it was a principle of prudence, in matters of private property, not to assent to any obligation till its errors were removed, he thought the principle infinitely more necessary to be attended to in a matter which concerned such a number of people, and so many millions yet unborn. ”

“ But besides the unheard-of principle of saddling the government with the expense of prosecuting the private claims of its citizens within its own jurisdiction, I should like to know what provision the constitution contains, which, though interpreted by the most latitudinarian constructionist, confers any right upon Congress thus to take the money of one citizen to pay the private expenses of another. ”

“ It cannot override them, but it can use them. It is concerned only with the questions : Who shall get the advan- tages of social production ? For whose benefit shall services be rendered, and who shall bear the burdens ? It deals with social classes, whereas the technical problem deals with the material of nature and the business problem deals with individuals.
We saw in the chapter on order that private property and sovereignty together constitute the total of coercion which exists in a given society. ”

“ All trades, said the court, as well mechanical as otherwise, which prevent idleness (the bane of the commonwealth) , exercising men and youth in labor for the maintenance of themselves and their families, and for the increase of their substance, to serve the Queen when occasion shall require, are profitable for the commonwealth, and, therefore, the grant to the plaintiff to have the sole making of them is against the common law, and the benefit and liberty of the subject. ”

“ Under the rules adopted in legislation, and the pliant decisions of courts, constitutions are made to yield to the demands of combinations, stock-jobbers, and private corporations, until we cease, as a people, to revere and respect these safeguards of our liberty. ”

“ Where, however, the respective parties are not private persons, dealing with matters and things in which the public has no concern, but are persons or corporations whose rights and powers were created for public purposes, by legislative acts, and where the subject-matter of the contract is one which affects the safety and welfare of the public, other principles apply. ”

“ Moreover, many of the decisions that gave 'accrued' this special meaning did so to avoid possible constitutional questions should the statutes be interpreted in a way that would destroy private rights. ”

“ The process to be observed, in either case, will be precisely similar to what is prescribed where the two parties in the suit are private individuals: government by no means wishing to enjoy themselves any better security of right, than that which they would ensure to the meanest of their subjects, nor to possess a greater facility of redress than is provided by their regulations to be offered to any individual who shall consider himself as aggrieved. ”