Civil and Criminal law in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Civil and Criminal law in the UK - Essay Example It is impractical to make selection of differences between criminal and civil law unless guided by a selected application of the two laws like safety in work place (Harr 2008). Nevertheless, it is impossible to analyze application of these two laws in relation to work place safety without first understanding the two concepts. A critical analysis of the major differences and similarities of the two laws will be articulated accordingly. The main feature of civil law is that it is contained in civil codes, which are illustrated as systematic and authoritative (Maguire 2007). Civil law mainly contains general rules and principals, mostly lacking details. One of the basic features of the civil law is that the court’s major duty is to apply and interpret law enclosed in a code based on case facts (Sanders 2010). This is in light with the assumption that the code regulates all cases that could arise, and when certain cases are not synchronized by the code, the court ought to apply some of the general principles used to fill the gap (Foster 2005). It is concerned with the rights and duties of individuals and institutions towards each other (Omerod 2008). The main feature of the offences focuses on negligence on health and safety of individuals (Maguire 2007). Main civil cases comprise of an action brought by a person against another in order to seek compensation for the offences committed against them (Hodge 2009) . Basically, criminal law is concerned with offences against society in general (Farrar and Mitchell 2008). In this law, crimes are defined as actions committed by individuals or institutions which violate the basic rules and principals of the society. In some situations, it becomes difficult to distinguish between criminal and civil law. However, an important feature that distinguishes the two is that in criminal law the means of demonstrating that actually an offense has or was indeed committed gas to be beyond