Criminal Law and Civil Law

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Criminal Law and Civil Law

Criminal law, or penal law, is the body of rules that defines conduct that is prohibited by the state

because it is held to threaten, harm or otherwise endanger the safety and welfare of the public, and that

sets out the punishment to be imposed on those who breach these laws. Criminal law is enforced by the

state, unlike the civil law which may be enforced by private parties(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_law).

Civil Law is concerned with the the Laws of Tort and Contract. Civil law can be defined as that area of

law which is concerned with private disputes that occur between individuals or between individuals and

organisations and where a proceedings in court is initiated by the aforementioned.

English law is made up primarily of Civil and Criminal Law. Civil law covers many areas of everyday

daily life, most notable are domestic relations law like divorces and child custody law, probate like wills

and estates, employment like agency and working hours laws, and personal injury law. Under pining

those laws are Tort and Contract Law. In contrast, criminal law seeks to punish those that has done

wrongs against the community. For example, a person who decides to take the life of someone else

commits murder. The community by way of its government has a duty to protect itself from being

murdered. The result is Criminal Law which is enforceable by the State and initiated by the Police.

Therefore criminal law is said to protect the community and punishes those that breaks the law with a

fine, imprisonment or community sentences. Whereas, civil law seeks to compensate party who has

suffered wrong.

The primary distinctions between criminal law and civil law is that in criminal law the government

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files against a person, group or company because a law has been broken. The burden of proof falls on

the government to prove the accusation beyond a reasonable doubt to be true. The government thus

uses its own resources in order to help find what the truth is sometimes giving them the bigger

advantage in searching for the truth. The defendant however, is afforded an attorney to assist him in

facing the criminal charges against him or her. However, if by chance the defendant cannot afford an

attorney one will be provided for him free of charge. If the government is successful in proving its case

penalties are placed upon the said defendant or violator of the law. These penalties include fines to

prison sentence depending on how heinousness crime. A judge sentences or imposes the sanctions on

the defendant after the judge or jury has convicted the lawbreaker (Kubasek, N.K., Browne, M.N.,

Herron. 2009).

In the civil law system of justice things are somewhat different. The burden of proof is on the persons

filing the action or plaintiff. The plaintiff in civil suits has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that his

accusations of damages are true. If the plaintiff prevails the defendant does face sanctions from the

courts but not like as in criminal cases. There are no jail or prison sentences handed-down. The most

that a plaintiff can achieve is proof of punitive damages which means the defendants will be forced to

pay monetary damages to "make whole" the plaintiff for the incident

(www.crimevictimlaw.com/civil/claw ).

One of the main differences between civil law and criminal law is that civil law can only happen after

an incident has occurred and is designed to compensate a victim, whereas, criminal law can prevent it. A

good example was the Health and Safety at Work Act which was created in 1974. Before this more over

a million people had no legal protection at work. The act is a duty to take reasonable care to ensure the

health

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