civil and criminal_law.ppt

Crimilal Law And Civil Law Shihaizhi Law School shzhi101@126.com * Criminal law is concerned with conduct of which the State disapproves and will punish the wrongdoer, seeking to deter others from similar behavior. Civil law has a complementary function. When a dispute arises between two individuals, rules of civil law are applied to determine which individual is in the right. The party in the wrong must then compensate the other for any loss of damage. The object of the criminal law is, therefore, punitive; the object of the civil law is to compensate the person wronged. * The Purpose of Criminal Law First, it is intended to prevent behavior that society has determined undesirable. Second, it is to punish those who take the acts deemed undesirable by society. It fact, the purpose of criminal law is twofold.Arguably, there is only one purpose, to prevent antisocial behavior. Punishment is only used as a tool to achieve the primary goal f preventing antisocial behavior. * The Purpose of Civil Law The primary purpose is to compensate those injured by someone else’s behavior. Actually it acts to prevent nonconformity. Prevention of the bad behavior may be more the consequence of civil law than the purpose. * Other Differences First, in civil law the person who brings the lawsuit is the person who was injured. In criminal law, it is the government,whether national,state, or local, is always the party who files criminal charges. Second, in civil law, the plaintiff must show actual injury to win. However, a criminal action for assault may still be brought since no injury is required in criminal law. * * *