Глоссарий юридической терминологии (англо-русский)

The distinction between civil and criminal liability is central to English law – the procedure for judicial protection and terminology depends on it. The critical difference between public and personal law is who triggers the mechanisms of official coercion: the state or an individual. In the field of business, private law is most applicable, especially corporate law.

Criminal law is part of public law. A private person does not pursue the criminal, but by the state, because society as a whole suffers from the crime – the scale of the harmfulness of the consequences is used to explain why the same act can entail both criminal and civil liability (for example, drunk driving with a downed pedestrian entails both criminal prosecutions for threatening the whole society with drunk driving and civil liability for harming the health of an individual).

To find the defendant guilty, the public prosecutor must prove that the actions or omissions had socially dangerous consequences or that the defendant failed to fulfill the obligation to take all necessary measures to avoid criminally punishable consequences.

Civil law is an element of private law. The names of civil cases reflect the fact that a private person initiated the coercion. The plaintiff must convince the court that the veracity of his statements is more likely than improbable (the principle of greater probability). Civil liability is not a punishment but serves as compensation. Therefore, for example, debt collection in civil proceedings cannot entail restriction of the debtor's freedom (hence, in a comparative legal context, the Russian practice of prohibiting the departure of civil debtors abroad looks doubtful).

The dispute may be settled out of court at the discretion of the parties. In the field of civil legal relations, the law of justice is most often applied.

An essential difference between the American legal system and the English one is the presence of a written Basic Law, which in the country is the Constitution of September 17, 1787, consisting of a preamble, seven articles, and twenty-seven amendments.

English case law is not applied unconditionally.

The Romano-Germanic legal family includes the legal systems of Western, Central, and Southern Europe and the Russian Federation. The main feature of the Romano-Germanic legal system is its formation based on the reception of Roman law. An essential element of Romano-Germanic law is its pronounced codification character.