Student Handout 3.1 - the Difference Between Civil Law and Criminal Law
Student Handout 3.1 - The Difference Between Civil Law and Criminal Law
When is a legal problem criminal and when is it civil? What difference does it make whether it is criminal or civil?
One way of looking at criminal law is that it is dealing with something of public interest. For example, the public has an interest in seeing that people are protected from being robbed or assaulted. These are legal problems that fall into the criminal law.
Criminal law involves punishing and rehabilitating offenders, and protecting society. Since the public has an interest in having criminal law, we give the government the power to put it in place and enforce it. The police and Crown Prosecutors are hired by the government to put the criminal law into effect. Public funds are used to pay for these services.
If you are the victim of a crime, you report it to the police and they have the responsibility to investigate. They arrest and charge the suspect. In most cases, if a charge has been properly laid and if there is evidence supporting it, the Crown Prosecutor, not the person who complains of the incident, prosecutes it in the courts. This is called a system of public prosecutions. Long ago the person who had been wronged prosecuted the case. The power to prosecute privately remains, but is used rarely now. Even if a person starts a prosecution privately, the Attorney General has the power to take over the prosecution of the case. As a victim, you do not have to be responsible for enforcing the law. The police and Crown Prosecutor do their jobs for the public at large, not for you personally.
In a criminal case, the Crown prosecutor must prove the defendant’s guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt." This means that at the end of a trial the judge or jury can only find the defendant guilty if they are left without a reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt. In other words, there is no logical or rational reason to doubt the defendant’s guilt.
This is not the case
When is a legal problem criminal and when is it civil? What difference does it make whether it is criminal or civil?
One way of looking at criminal law is that it is dealing with something of public interest. For example, the public has an interest in seeing that people are protected from being robbed or assaulted. These are legal problems that fall into the criminal law.
Criminal law involves punishing and rehabilitating offenders, and protecting society. Since the public has an interest in having criminal law, we give the government the power to put it in place and enforce it. The police and Crown Prosecutors are hired by the government to put the criminal law into effect. Public funds are used to pay for these services.
If you are the victim of a crime, you report it to the police and they have the responsibility to investigate. They arrest and charge the suspect. In most cases, if a charge has been properly laid and if there is evidence supporting it, the Crown Prosecutor, not the person who complains of the incident, prosecutes it in the courts. This is called a system of public prosecutions. Long ago the person who had been wronged prosecuted the case. The power to prosecute privately remains, but is used rarely now. Even if a person starts a prosecution privately, the Attorney General has the power to take over the prosecution of the case. As a victim, you do not have to be responsible for enforcing the law. The police and Crown Prosecutor do their jobs for the public at large, not for you personally.
In a criminal case, the Crown prosecutor must prove the defendant’s guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt." This means that at the end of a trial the judge or jury can only find the defendant guilty if they are left without a reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt. In other words, there is no logical or rational reason to doubt the defendant’s guilt.
This is not the case