Civil and public law

Civil law is the body of laws established by a state or nation for its own regulation within a country, and public law is affecting the public at large with concerns disputes between citizens and the state, or between one state and another. The main categories of English civil law are: contracts, torts, trusts, probate and family law. The main categories of public law are: crimes, constitutional law and international law.
Most countries make clear difference between civil and criminal procedures. English criminal court may force a defendant to pay a fine as punishment for his crime, sometimes even the legal costs of prosecution, but the victim of the crime seeks his claim for compensation in a civil, not a criminal, action. Prosecutions of civil and criminal law are different because in English law the prosecution must prove the guilt of a criminal “beyond reasonable doubt”, but in a civil case, the court will weight all the evidence and decide what is most probable. Another difference is that criminal actions are usually started by individuals. Finally, evidence from a criminal trial is not necessarily admissible as evidence in a civil action about the same matter because the victim may be able to prove his civil case even when the defendant is found not guilty in the criminal trial.
In the final analysis, there are many point of contact between criminal and civil law. In most countries if the loser of a civil case refuses to comply with the order made against him, the procedures for forcing him to comply may result in a criminal prosecution. The guilty defendant in a criminal case will not automatically be found liable in a civil action about the same matter, his chances of avoiding civil liability are not good because the standard of proof in the civil case is lower than it was in the criminal case.