民事同刑事既定義

The definintion of a civil case is two parties ( two citizens) involved; amount of money cannot be exceeded over the jurisdiction of the Court of Small Claim. One party is suing the other for compensation as a victum in the trial.

The definition of a criminal case is that one party is a citizen and the other is governmental or public agencies, such as the Hong Kong Police; amount of money can be varied depends on the nature of the case. Or any other cases that is criminalized by the legislative council, such as violence or family abuse.

Since civil law is within the common law system, laws can be changed through different paths.

1. The legislative council can amend or abolish a law.

2. The chief executive can isse an executive order to provide exceptions.

3. The courts can rule in different intrepretations.

4. The supreme court can strike down a law or order that is not parallel with the constitution (The Basic Law) through judicial review.

Acts can be criminalized, and also decriminalized from criminal case to civil case. Homosexcial intercourse is under the jurisdiction of criminal law, but the legislative council passed an act to decriminalized the action to a civil case.

Some examples of civil cases are libel, slander, or any other cases involving these laws, such as: Contract Law, Family Law, Intellectual Property Law( Patent and copyrights), and Tort Law (compensation for disputes). They are usually settled in the courts of small claim, unless special courts are established.

Some examples of crimnal cases are murder, manslaughter, purgery (lying under oath in court), actions that is criminalized by the legislative council, or any serious high crime as homocide.

I hope you will find this helpful! You can ask me any question if you do have.