ABSTRACT
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LAW International transactions are complex and tend to be risky. Consequently, disputes often arise between business partners. To the international businessperson, however, the normal recourse to national law is not always available, because host-country laws often discriminate in favor of their citizens. Moreover, there is no international body of law that governs international transactions. Thus, when people refer to the study or the conducting of international law, they are merely referring to the laws that govern the activity
of nations in their relationships with one another. These laws collectively are referred to as the public law of nations, which reflects individual countries’ methods for dealing with other nations of the world. Public law is based not only on written law but also on unwritten customs and conventions.
