Abstract
The main theme of this chapter is to suggest that the nature of public law is best explained by examining the conditions of its formation. This type of exercise reveals that public law is a modern concept which is formed by reworking the medieval idea of natural law in the context of the emergence of the modern idea of the sovereign state. In this chapter, the nature of the subject is explored through analysis of the writings of Bodin, Pufendorf, and Rousseau. The objective is to show not only that public law is a broader concept than positive law but that it also has an ambiguous character. These ambiguities permeate modern public law thought and leave it with a polarized consciousness.
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