Civil, Criminal, Public and Private Law

• Legal disputes are resolved through courts or legislation.
• Non-legal disputes are resolved through social, political, or personal means.

Civil vs Criminal Law

• Criminal law addresses conduct harmful to society by prohibiting certain actions and prescribing trial and punishment procedures.
• Civil law regulates relationships between individuals, establishing rights, liabilities, and consequences for breaches.
• Certain behaviours can lead to both criminal and civil proceedings.
• The type of legal process involved determines the status of the proceedings, rather than the behaviour itself.
• For example, assault can result in criminal charges and civil compensation.

Public vs Private Law

• Public law concerns the functioning of the state and its relationship with citizens; examples include criminal, constitutional, and administrative law.
• Private law focuses on relationships between individuals with less direct state interest.
• The distinction is influenced by liberalism, which values liberty, individualism, and equality.
• Classical liberalism prioritizes the individual over the state, allowing freedom except when community protection is needed.

Classification by Source

• Laws made by parliament are Acts, statutes, or legislation.
• Parliaments can delegate law-making power to non-parliamentary entities.
• Judges in superior courts create common law when deciding cases.
• Common law distinguishes court-developed law from parliamentary statutes or delegated legislation.

International Law

• International law becomes a direct source of law in Australia when incorporated into domestic law via Commonwealth or State legislation.

Autonomy and Legitimacy

• Autonomy of law means that law is a separate discipline with its own rules, values, and processes.
• Three traits of Western law are autonomy, role in social order, and moral authority.
• Law remains separate from morality and politics, which is important for resolving societal disputes.
• Society often lacks consensus on moral or policy issues.

Positivism

• Positivism views law as a system of rules created by human institutions, not derived from moral principles.
• Emphasis is on formally enacted or recognized laws, separate from morality or justice.

Formalism

• Formalism assumes law is objective and discovered through an impartial process but this has been widely challenged since the late 19th century.
• Challenges say legal decisions involve non-legal factors.
• These challenges focus on law’s connection to power dynamics.
• Further critics rejects the broader idea that knowledge itself can be fully objective.

Substantive Law

• Substantive law defines legal rights and obligations, determining how courts resolve disputes.
• Legal rules can be ambiguous, requiring case analysis and statutory interpretation.
• Contract law establishes when agreements are enforceable and the consequences of breaches.

Procedural Law

• Procedural law governs how legal cases are brought before courts and conducted.
• It includes rules on jurisdiction, who can initiate cases, and timeframes for filing claims.
• Civil cases are initiated by individuals; criminal cases are prosecuted by the state.
• Criminal cases require proof "beyond reasonable doubt," while civil cases use the "balance of probabilities."
• Standing to sue is traditionally limited to those directly affected, but statutes now allow broader access in public interest matters.