American Civil Law
American Civil Law refers to the body of laws that govern private disputes between individuals and organizations, as opposed to criminal matters. It encompasses areas such as contracts, property, torts, and family law. Civil law cases are typically resolved through monetary compensation or court orders to perform or refrain from certain actions, rather than through criminal penalties.
6 Key excerpts on "American Civil Law"
- Roberta Carroll, Roberta Carroll(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Jossey-Bass(Publisher)
...Appendix 2.1 ESSENTIALS OF AMERICAN LAW John C. West In many respects, American law has grown in the absence of a grand design or consistent vision. It has grown by the accretion of statutes, constitutions, and court decisions in individual cases. New statutes are passed by new generations of legisla tors; new cases are decided by new generations of judges. American law, to some extent, has evolved to meet the needs and expectations of society as it evolves. There has been, of necessity and invariably, some lag time built into the process. Sometimes all of this has meshed well; at other times, and perhaps more frequently, needs and expectations have conflicted with each other. It is something of a misnomer to refer to something as “American law,” because there really is no single American law. It is a complex mixture of fifty different state and federal laws and it varies from location to location. However, there are enough basic similarities between all of the various jurisdictions that certain observations can be made regarding “American law.” American law is based on, or was a reaction to, the Common Law tradition that was received from England during the Colonial period. Many of the most revered institutions of American law, such as trial by jury, can be traced back to medieval England. One of the chief characteristics of the Common Law is that the law is largely built upon court decisions rather than statutes. A great deal of the Common Law has never been codified, and a court is not dependent upon a statutory enactment to determine whether one party might be liable to another. Where statutes have been enacted in a particular area, court decisions tend to elucidate and clarify what the statutes mean, and courts are free to interpret statutes in ways that might not have been envisioned by the legislature. The Civil Law system, which predominates in most of continental Europe, by contrast, is heavily dependent upon statutory enactments...
eBook - ePubThe Elements of Private Investigation
An Introduction to the Law, Techniques, and Procedures
- Anthony Manley(Author)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Usually the litigant seeks damages in the form of money, but not necessarily so. In those instances, the lawsuit may seek to change a procedure or a policy or just to correct a wrong. To reiterate, civil law refers to that law (a vast body of statutory and common law) relating to private rights and remedies sought by a party who has suffered a “wrong” or has been “damaged” in some manner. It may be further defined as a body of laws that deal with the relationship between individuals, whereas criminal law deals with offenses against the state (the people). Moreover, if a person suffers from some act, or a failure to act, when no privilege or right exists, and such act or failure injures the person, property, or reputation of another, directly or indirectly, it may be considered a civil wrong. Civil Liability Therefore, within civil law, civil liability includes the procedures for civil law actions based on a violation of a legal duty or standard of care which may result from an accident, an omission of an act or duty, or an intentional or a criminal act that the plaintiff may have suffered. Whether the defendant in a criminal action is found guilty or acquitted, it has no bearing on the ability of that defendant, now a plaintiff, to initiate a subsequent civil action. Conversely, a private person (PI) who faces a criminal charge in a criminal court and is found guilty or not, may also face a civil lawsuit against him or her if the “wronged” party wishes to initiate such an action. The Awarding of Damages Civil damages may be received as compensatory or punitive...
- Kirk Junker(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In the commercial sphere, the influence of both John Locke and Adam Smith are also pervasive. What becomes evident is a legal system founded on the ideals of individualism. It is a legal system that envisions tying oneself to the soil and creating property where in the eyes of the early immigrants there was none. In addition, the system brings about a theory of contract tied to “bargain” not to “promise,” with profound repercussions. It is a legal system that claims to reflect the values of self-determination, self-mastery and individual accountability. These values are expressed in a legal system that begins with individual conflict resolution, not the state’s legislation. 3.2 A Note on Case Decisions As with common law generally, the character of U.S. law is frequently overgeneralized as being limited to judge-made law, while the character of civil law is overgeneralized as being limited to statutory law. While in fact it is true that there are features for each of the two systems that point in these directions, there are many other differences between the two systems that are important precisely because they are more revealing about the ways that a lawyer from the other system might be thinking in a collaborative project or in resolving a conflict. 58 Nevertheless, since it is so often the case that one hears that “common law is case law and civil law is statutory law,” one must confront rather than dismiss these claims, even if these features are over-emphasized. Each of these broad categories of world systems uses cases and statutes, as well as constitutions and regulations. Nowadays, most common law jurisdictions rely heavily upon statutory law as the primary source of law in most areas of legal practice, leaving what one might call “pure common law” (that is, judges deciding disputes for which there is no statutory authority) to almost only one area of private law in the United States—torts. 59 In public law, given the fact that the U.S...
eBook - ePub- Tom Craig, David Campbell(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Civil and criminal law are two distinct areas of legal practice and are overseen by separate parts of the judiciary. In matters of civil law, individuals can bring other individuals (or legal entities, such as companies) to the judiciary in order to have disputes settled. A civil matter is one in which a legal entity feels that they have a legitimate grievance against another, but the ‘offence’ is a matter which is not serious enough for the state to bring the case to a criminal court. The nature of the ‘offence’ is not considered to be a threat to society as a whole. In civil cases, the judiciary therefore acts as an umpire, ensuring that wrongs are redressed and that fairness is enforced. Once a civil court has made a judgement, the ruling carries the authority of the state. Some of the most common civil disputes concern matters of tort. The Law of Torts concerns legal wrongs against an individual which gives the plaintiff (the party that brings the complaint – see later) a right of civil action for damages, but which do not arise over matters of breach of contract or trust. It is a broad expectation in society that individuals should have the right to pursue their lives without personal offence to their persons, property, etc. and to enjoy their possessions and property without unreasonable intrusion by others. Tort concerns such things as trespass, nuisance, negligence and defamation of character. It gives individuals the right of legal redress when they have been offended against in these matters. A criminal case is one in which the offence is viewed as being of sufficient seriousness that, even although it may be an individual that has been ‘wronged’ the case against the alleged offender is brought by the state (or the Crown) in the form of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for England and Wales...
eBook - ePubAgricultural and Agribusiness Law
An Introduction for Non-Lawyers
- Theodore A. Feitshans(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 1 Understanding the U.S. legal system Introduction The key to understanding the U.S. legal system is that it is not one system but many. The U.S. legal system is a federal system composed of separate systems that include the states, other associated territorial entities, and the Indian tribes. 1 Over all of these entities sits the federal government. The relationship between the federal government and the states is governed by the Constitution. The relationship between the federal government and associated territorial entities and the Indian tribes is governed by the Constitution and a complex of treaties, statutes, and court orders. Most of these entities, but not all, use some version of English common law. This chapter provides an overview of these systems and how they are linked. English common law is a system of judge-made law that is used in Great Britain and its former colonies and dependencies. Each published judicial decision creates law not only for the case but for all subsequent decisions by that court or any court below it. This is in contrast to civil law systems that are used in most other countries, except for some Muslim countries that use a sharia law system. Civil law systems use comprehensive codes that attempt to capture all possible situations that may arise. As one may imagine, such codes are very comprehensive. The Napoleonic code was the basis of the first modern civil law systems. Statutes in common law systems tend to be rather sparse by comparison. In common law systems, the gaps in statutes are filled by regulations promulgated by regulatory agencies and by judicial decisions. Common law will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter. The rise of the modern regulatory agency has led to a convergence between common law and civil law systems. Regulatory agencies such as those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S...
eBook - ePubAmerican Judicial Process
Myth and Reality in Law and Courts
- Pamela C. Corley, Artemus Ward, Wendy L. Martinek(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Thus, American tort law is more responsive to popular pressures for social change and for holding big business and the government accountable. 27 At the same time, the costs of adversarial legalism are high, both monetarily (as lawyers routinely take 40 percent or more of damage awards 28) and structurally (as the system promotes contentiousness, uncertainty, delay, and unpredictability). Regardless of the costs and benefits of this system in the abstract, it is quite clear that the judiciary, and particularly lawyers, have become a critical part of the American process of governance. MYTH AND REALITY IN CIVIL LAW Myth Reality Civil lawsuits are driven by manipulative lawyers and individual greed. Civil litigation is inherent in the decentralized American governmental system that forces individuals to take their grievances to court. Litigiousness is a growing problem. The vast majority of disputes never end up in court and civil litigation rates have been stable for decades (and recently have been in decline). Modern tort law developed because of opportunistic lawyers. Modern tort law developed because the government failed to protect people from the hazards of the industrial revolution. Civil litigation involves individuals seeking monetary damages from large corporations. Civil litigation can be a tool for social change. Tort cases dominate civil caseloads. Tort cases represent a small percentage of civil caseloads. Most tort cases go to trial and the numbers are increasing. Few tort cases are resolved through trial and the number is declining. Injured victims always win at trial and are awarded large damages. Injured victims often lose at trial and, if they prevail, awards are often modest. Punitive damage awards are common and large. Punitive damages are rarely awarded and modest in amount. Alternative Dispute Resolution processes such...
