What’s the Difference Between Civil and Criminal Law?
The Constitution is the fundamental law, defining fundamental issues such as the state and social systems, and serves as the foundation for the enactment of other laws (including civil and criminal laws). Civil law regulates property and personal relations between citizens and legal persons as equal subjects.
Criminal law is the law that defines what constitutes a crime and the penalties for it.
Criminal law is the law that defines crimes, criminal liability, and penalties. It is the collective term for legal norms that the ruling class, in order to maintain its political rule and economic interests, determines, at its will, what constitutes a crime, what criminal liability should be borne, and what criminal penalties should be imposed on suspects. Civil law is the collective term for legal norms that regulate personal and property relations between natural persons, legal persons, and other unincorporated organizations as equal civil subjects. It is an independent branch of the legal system.
Civil law encompasses both formal civil law (i.e., the Civil Code) and individual civil laws and civil norms contained in other laws and regulations.
Criminal law is the law that defines what constitutes a crime and what criminal liability should be borne for each crime. The mission of criminal law is to safeguard national security, uphold the people's democratic dictatorship and the socialist system, protect state-owned property and property collectively owned by the working people, protect citizens' private property, protect citizens' legitimate rights and interests, combat all criminal offenses, safeguard citizens' personal rights, democratic rights, and other rights, maintain social and economic order, and ensure the smooth progress of socialist construction.
Civil law regulates property and personal relations between equal subjects, citizens, legal persons, and citizens and legal persons, such as compensation and debts. It primarily resolves civil disputes. Violations of criminal law constitute crimes and warrant criminal prosecution.
Civil law and criminal law are two distinct legal systems, with the following key differences:
- Different Purposes: Civil law primarily regulates civil relations between individuals, i.e., civil legal relations, while criminal law regulates criminal relations between the state and individuals, i.e., criminal legal relations.
- Different Legislative Purposes: Civil law is intended to protect the rights and interests of individuals, safeguard social order, and maintain fairness and justice, while criminal law is intended to uphold state authority and interests, safeguard social security, and protect the public interest.
- Different Scopes of Application: Civil law applies to civil relationships between individuals, including contracts, torts, family, and inheritance; whereas criminal law applies to criminal acts that violate national laws and regulations.
- Different Legal Liabilities: Civil law primarily focuses on liability for compensation, i.e., providing financial compensation for breach of contract, tort, and other acts; whereas criminal law primarily focuses on criminal liability, i.e., imposing criminal penalties for criminal acts.
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