Key Takeaways
- Civil law deals with disputes between individuals or organizations, such as contract disputes or property rights.
- Criminal law deals with crimes against society, such as murder or theft, and the punishment of offenders.
- Civil law cases are typically resolved through financial compensation or equitable relief, while criminal law cases may result in imprisonment or fines.
What is a Civil Law?
Civil law is a comprehensive system of rules and principles arranged in codes easily accessible to citizens and jurists. It clearly expresses and duties of civil citizens and has complete access to all the country’s citizens. The word Civil law is a translation of the Latin word “just civile”, which means citizens’ law.
All the proceedings under Civil law are followed from the code of civil procedure 1908. It is a law code and is the primary source of Civil law. It is a systematic collection of interrelated articles arranged by subject experts in a predefined order. These codes explain the principles of law rights and how basic legal mechanisms work.
Civil law applies in cases where an injury is caused to an individual by an act or behaviour of another person. The acts committed by the party here are generally not crimes. It is a law in which cases are tried under tribunals and civil courts relating to that. The damages caused to the parties are resolved by paying the compensation amount and not through imprisonment. The branches of civil law include contract, tort, family, administrative and commercial law.
What is Criminal Law?
Criminal law is a law that relates crime and punishments. It deals with all the offences that are against conventional society. It focuses on an individual’s crimes rather than just violating civil rights.
Criminal law is applied when there is any harmful or endangering act by any individual on the health or property of the person. Unlike civil law, it focuses on punishment rather than compensation while resolving issues. The acts constituting under criminal law are often more grievous than those under Civil law.
The cases under criminal law are tried under the session court or criminal quotes. The procedures under criminal law are carried out according to the code of criminal procedure. This code of criminal procedure also provides information about the procedures for investigating different types of crimes, collection of evidence, apprehension of criminals, and proper direction toward the punishment for specific crimes.
Difference Between Civil Law and Criminal Law
- Procedural law for civil law is according to the code of civil procedure given in 1908. Whereas. Criminal law follows the code of criminal procedure given and 1973.
- Branches of civil law include corporate law, family law, media law, sports law, property law, etc. In contrast, there is no divergence in criminal law.
- Civil Law cases can be filed directly to the court, whereas criminal cases often must be registered in the police office before the court director.
- The cases under Civil law are tribal under Civil Court. In contrast, the cases under criminal law are tried in sessions court or Criminal Court.
- Civil law has dispute resolution machinery. On the other hand, criminal law has retribution machinery.
Comparison Between Civil Law and Criminal Law
| Parameter of Comparison | Civil Law | Criminal Law |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | It is a law that deals with acts related to individuals whose harm caused can be repaired by compensation. | It is a law that deals with a crime that causes damage to a person. |
| Justice | Justice is given by giving monetary relief against the damages. | Justice is given by giving imprisonment for a term or fine or both |
| Objective | Its objective is to resolve disputes between individuals | Its objective is to provide justice to victims by punishing the accused. |
| Infringement | It is an infringement of private rights. | It is an infringement of public rights |
| Examples | Negligence, trespass, invasion of privacy, etc. | Kidnapping, theft, Murder, rape, etc. |
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- https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/ylr101§ion=75
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Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.
