Law, Justice and Society Chapter 7

What is civil law? Civil law is the area of law common law regulating the conduct of private parties and their relationships. Civil law is a really interesting law because it is very different from criminal law. In civil law for something to happen someone needs to have a complaint to the authorities and that starts the wheels rolling. To win a civil law the the plaintive needs to convince the judge that the defendant actually did the act that the plaintive is accusing them of doing. If they do convince the judge then the judge either gives a fair ruling for the damage caused by the defendant or gives the plaintive what they were asking for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0u266b7guc. There are many differences between civil law and criminal law. In criminal law the defendant is found guilty in civil law the defendant is found responsible and needs to compensate the plaintive for their damage but in criminal law the defendant has to go and do time for what they have done. In criminal law the defendant gets more rights then in civil law that is because there is no true authority involved except for the judge. The part that is the most interesting to me from this chapter was the marriage law. It says that marriage is like a contract that two people make between each other and try to obey it for the rest of their lives. To me marriage was always two people coming together because of love and promising to each other to be true and to love one another for the rest of their lives. It was never like a contract.