The distinctions between public and private international law are thus summed up by Mr. Minor in his work on Conflict of Laws:1

"Private international law may be distinguished from the public in three important particulars:

"1. As to the persons on whom it operates.

"Private citizens are the subjects of this branch of the law, while public international law deals for the most part with nations as such.

"2. As to the transactions to which it relates.

"The law of nations recognizes in general only transactions in which sovereign states are interested.

1 Minor on Conflict of Laws, Sec. 2.

Not so with private international law. The transactions over which it assumes control are strictly private in their nature, in which the State as such has generally no interest. The private contract of the citizen of one State with the citizen of another, or a conveyance or will made by the citizen of one State transferring property in another, are subjects of private international law, with which public international law has no concern.

"3. As to remedies applied.

"In cases to which private international law is applicable recourse is had to judicial tribunals acting under the authority and in accordance with the rules of procedure of the country in which they sit. They are asked to hear the evidence and administer justice as though the case were one of purely domestic concern. But in a contest between sovereign states arising under the law of nations, no such recourse is ordinarily practicable. No State would consent to have its disputes decided by the courts of another power, nor to appear before them, a suppliant for the justice it demands as a right."