The article discusses how public law, which governs the actions of the state and its administration, plays a crucial role in justifying state power to serve the public rather than private interests. It highlights the importance of laws in coordinating and shaping public behavior consistently over time, and how ruling under the law forces rulers to act in a publicly justified and fair manner. The debate revolves around the extent to which laws need to possess certain qualities and how much they constrain those in power. Overall, it is widely agreed that all laws must have public qualities, such as being publicly recognized and formalizing power to some extent.