Law Week 2: Learning Team Reflection

Learning Team Reflection

LAW/421

05 October 2014

        In this learning team reflection we will be discussing the differences between the different types of law and how they are different from one another. Also discussed will be how these laws are applied to businesses and companies to protect them. There are many applications of laws and how they are used in court.

        Substantive law is the people’s law. This law is used to deal with the cases between the citizens and citizens, or citizens and the state. This law tells the people what they can and cannot do. This law also establishes the rights of the people. Procedural law mostly deals with criminal law and proceedings in court. The court has to abide by the standards that procedural law has set. This way, everything stays fair in the court systems.

        There are many differences between these two laws. Substantive laws are not able to be used in non-legal context, but procedural can be. Procedural laws can only tell how the court case is going to be handled as where substantive will be the law that decides the fate of the court case. With these major differences, these two laws still work together hand in hand to make a court case run smooth and fair.

        In criminal law, the defendant has many outcomes from the case proceedings. If a man robs a bank with a gun, they might be incarcerated, forced to pay fines, or even put to death. On the flip side there is civil law. If a man goes to a restaurant and does not pay his bill, this is considered defrauding that business, and is punished differently than the man that has robbed the bank. This man would be taken to court and made to pay the restaurant back for his bill. The difference between the two is that criminal law usually affects the safety of society and must have a burden of proof, whereas the restaurant man will just be forced to pay fines for his actions and can be granted a speedy trial.