Civil and public law. Summary

Civil law is the section of the law that deals with disputes among citizens within country. Public law is the law governing relationships between individuals (citizens, companies) and the state. The main categories of civil law are; torts, trust, probate. Constitutional law, International law and crimes are sub-divisions of public law.
The party which brings a criminal action is called prosecution and it is nearly always the state. The party bringing a civil action is the plaintiff and usually it is individuals. There is a difference between standards of proof: in a criminal action “prosecution must prove the guilt of a criminal action “beyond a reasonable doubt”, the plaintiff in a civil action is required to prove his case “on the balance of probabilities””. If the defendant looses a civil case, he should pay damages to the plaintiff. If the defendant looses a criminal case, he may be forced to pay a fine and to pay legal costs of the prosecution.
There are different punishments of disobeying in criminal and civil law. In any court disobeying loser may constitute a criminal conduct. In civil law the loser without criminal penalty has to pay damages ordered by court.