Note 243 — THE ORIGIN OF PROPERTY IN LAND (continued 2)

“Fere de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt.” It is well known that in legal language, the judicia publica are criminal cases; as the term implies, cases which concern crimes punished by a public authority; the judicia privata are those which concern private interests alone, and in which the State is not involved. See on this distinction Paul, Sententiæ, I., 5, 2; Ulpian XIII., 2; Fragmenta Vaticana, 197 and 326; Digest, XLVII., tit. 1 and 2; XLVIII., I.; I., l, l § 6; XXIII., 2, 43, § 11 and 12. To translate controversiæ publicæ in the passage from Cæsar as disputes between two peoples would run counter to the meaning of words. Publicus never means inter duos populos.