civil law

(noun)

The body of law dealing with the private relations between members of a community; it contrasts with criminal law, military law, and ecclesiastical law.

Related Terms

Examples of civil law in the following topics:

  • Civil Law and Criminal Law

    • Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime and civil law deals with disputes between organizations and individuals.
    • Criminal law differs from civil law, whose emphasis is more on dispute resolution than in punishment.
    • Civil law differs from criminal law, which emphasizes punishment rather than dispute resolution.
    • The law relating to civil wrongs and quasi-contract is part of civil law.
    • The objectives of civil law are different from other types of law.

  • Bureaucratic Reform

    • The five important civil service reforms were the two Tenure of Office Acts of 1820 and 1867, the Pendleton Act of 1883, the Hatch Acts (1939 and 1940), and the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) of 1978.
    • The Civil Service Reform Act (the Pendleton Act) is an 1883 federal law that established the United States Civil Service Commission.
    • The new law prohibited mandatory campaign contributions, or "assessments," which amounted to 50-75% of party financing during the Gilded Age.
    • The CSRA became law in 1978.
    • Civil service laws have consistently protected federal employees from political influence, and critics of the system complained that it was impossible for managers to improve performance and implement changes recommended by political leaders.

  • Primary Sources of American Law

    • The primary sources of American Law are: constitutional law, statutory law, treaties, administrative regulations, and the common law.
    • These sources are constitutional law, statutory law, treaties, administrative regulations, and the common law.
    • However, U.S. law has diverged greatly from its English ancestor both in terms of substance and procedure, and has incorporated a number of civil law innovations.
    • Thus, most U.S. law consists primarily of state law, which can and does vary greatly from one state to the next.
    • Foreign law has never been cited as binding precedent, but merely as a reflection of the shared values of Anglo-American civilization or even Western civilization in general.

  • Common Law

    • Law of the United States was mainly derived from the common law system of English law.
    • At both the federal and state levels, the law of the United States was mainly derived from the common law system of English law , which was in force at the time of the Revolutionary War.
    • It has incorporated a number of civil law innovations.
    • American judges, like common law judges elsewhere, not only apply the law, they also make the law.
    • Instead, it must be regarded as 50 separate systems of tort law, family law, property law, contract law, criminal law, and so on.

  • The Civil Rights Acts

    • In a civil rights speech on June 11, 1963, President John F.
    • The Civil Rights Act was followed by the Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Johnson in 1965.
    • The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B.
    • Johnson, who had earlier signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
    • Kennedy, who called for the passage of a civil rights bill.

  • Jim Crow Laws

    • The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965.
    • Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
    • During the Reconstruction period of 1865–1877, federal law provided civil rights protection in the U.S.
    • Woodrow Wilson, a southern Democrat and the first southern-born president of the post-Civil War period, appointed southerners to his Cabinet.
    • Some quickly began to press for segregated work places, although Washington, D.C. and federal offices had been integrated since after the Civil War.

  • Legislative Change

    • The Civil Rights Act of 1957, primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress in the United States since the Reconstruction Era following the American Civil War.
    • Byrd, Sr. of Virginia along with his brother-in-law as the leader in the Virginia General Assembly, Democrat Delegate James M.
    • The law, which focused exclusively on voting rights, set up a six-member Civil Rights Commission in the Executive Branch to gather information on deprivation of citizens' voting rights based on color, race, religion or national origin, legal background, and laws and policies of the federal government.
    • The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B.
    • After its enactment, the law immediately decreased racial discrimination in voting.

  • Corruption and Reform: Hayes to Harrison

    • The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in ended the spoils system at the federal level in 1883.
    • The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in ended the spoils system at the federal level in 1883 and created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission to evaluate job candidates on a nonpartisan merit basis.
    • While few jobs were initially covered under the law, it allowed the President to transfer jobs and their current holders into the system, thus giving the holder a permanent job.
    • The new law prohibited mandatory campaign contributions, or "assessments," which amounted to 50-75% of party financing in the Gilded Age.
    • The 1883 law only applied to federal jobs, not to the state and local jobs that were the main basis for political machines (which was not addressed until the Progressive Era).

  • The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement

    • The Civil Rights Movement or 1960s Civil Rights Movement (sometimes referred to as the "African-American Civil Rights Movement" although the term "African American" was not widely used in the 1950s and '60s) encompasses social movements in the United States whose goals were to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans and to secure legal recognition and federal protection of the citizenship rights enumerated in the Constitution and federal law.
    • The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance.
    • Gayle, took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional.
    • Some local leaders of the NAACP had tried to persuade the students to back down from their protest against the Jim Crow laws of school segregation.
    • However, the new law raised controversy.

  • Civil Rights of the Elderly

    • The elderly, or senior citizens, are vulnerable to civil rights abuses due to a propensity for sickness, disability, and poverty.
    • Because of a propensity for illness, disability, and lack of employment, the elderly are faced with unique civil rights challenges.
    • Johnson signed the Older Americans Act (OAA) into law.
    • The law attempts to address company policies that force elderly employees out of work once they become eligible for government retirement benefits or due to prejudice against the elderly.
    • Discuss the civil rights issues that affect the elderly in the United States