In the early days of English law all proceedings were treated
as what would now be called civil proceedings – even
murder was treated as a matter for compensation
rather than punishment
(the fact that having to pay compensation might itself be
a punishment being incidental).
When the royal courts became established, however, they began
to treat the more serious offences as crimes punishable by
the State. Less serious matters involving interference with
persons or property were known as trespasses, for which the
wrongdoer had to pay compensation, but in course of time some
trespasses came to be known as ‘trespasses against the
King’s Peace’ for which fines, forfeited to the
State, had to be paid as well as compensation.
Thus, some acts, such as assault and battery, became recognised
as the subject of both civil and criminal proceedings, and
even today many crimes are also torts.
Civil law had tended to develop more by case law than by statute,
whereas the converse applies to criminal law. The reason for
this is that an individual who has suffered a wrong has a
close personal interest in bringing proceedings to obtain
redress, and thus there is no lack of decisions to aid the
growth of the law.
In criminal matters, on the other hand, very often no individual
has a sufficiently personal interest to bring proceedings,
and it is therefore left to Parliament to legislate on criminal
matters, and to see that there is proper machinery for the
enforcement of the law. This point however, should not be
over-emphasised for much criminal law is based on case law,
and virtually the whole of the law relating to murder is based
on common law rather than statute.
See also:
History
of Precedent
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