Year 11 - Citizenship
Why do we need criminal and civil law?
Does our legal system protect citizens' rights?
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit builds pupils knowledge and understanding of the law and the legal system including: criminal and civil justice; the judicial process and role of citizens in justice; legal rights, sanctions; and how well prison works.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain why we need criminal and civil law.
Key Notes
- Criminal law keeps society safe, ensures justice, and deters crime by setting clear rules and consequences.
- It punishes offenders fairly, deters crime, and provides justice for victims by ensuring accountability.
- Civil law resolves disputes and ensures justice when people's rights are affected, like family or work issues.
- It holds individuals and businesses accountable, ensuring people can defend their rights.
- Without civil law, people could struggle to protect their rights and resolve disputes fairly.
Vocabulary To Learn
- criminal law: law that deals with individuals who break the law and seeks to punish an offence (because the offender has broken laws that Parliament has stated that we must all obey)
- justice: fairness as a result of the application of a law, usually by a judge, in society
- civil law: law that deals with disputes between individuals or groups; there are civil courts which award damages (a money payment)
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may think that criminal law deals with serious crime and civil law deals with less serious crime.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Criminal law keeps society safe, ensures justice, and deters crime by setting clear rules and consequences. It punishes offenders fairly, deters crime, and provides justice for victims by ensuring accountability.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'criminal law'
law that deals with individuals who break the law and seeks to punish an offence (because the offender has broken laws that Parliament has stated that we must all obey).
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Pupils may think that criminal law deals with serious crime and civil law deals with less serious crime. Correction: Criminal law and civil law are seperate. Within both, there is a range of severity.
More Lessons In This Unit
- How are rights supported in civil cases? Study Guide
- What are rights in relation to the police? Study Guide
- What rights do defendants and victims of crime have? Study Guide
- Which legal professionals support our rights in criminal courts? Study Guide
- Why do we need laws and where do they come from? Study Guide
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