Why do we need criminal and civil law?
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain why we need criminal and civil law.
Key learning 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.
- 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.
Keywords
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 misconception
Pupils may think that criminal law deals with serious crime and civil law deals with less serious crime.
Criminal law and civil law are seperate. Within both, there is a range of severity.
Teacher tip
Collect a range of newspapers and ask pupils to hunt for stories that could relate to criminal or civil law.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Depiction or discussion of serious crime
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1. refers to fair consequences that apply when a law is broken.
Q2.Who creates laws through Parliament in the UK?
Q3.Match the words to the correct definition.
the lawmaking body of the state
law made by the decisions of judges over the years
legal decision made by a judge that must be followed in the future
Q4.The legislative process ensures that reflect society's needs and values.
Q5.Why is common law important?
Q6.What stages does a Bill go through before becoming an Act?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1. law keeps society safe, ensures justice and deters crime by setting clear rules and consequences.
Q2.What does civil law deal with?
Q3. law holds individuals and businesses accountable, ensuring people can defend their rights.
Q4.What does criminal law ensure for victims?
Q5.What is there a range of in both civil and criminal law?
Q6.Match the civil court to its purpose.
contract disagreements, debt recovery
divorce, child custody and adoption
employment rights, immigration and housing issues
To help you plan your 11 citizenship lesson on: Why do we need criminal and civil law?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 11 citizenship lesson on: Why do we need criminal and civil law?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 citizenship lessons from the Does our legal system protect citizens' rights? unit, dive into the full secondary citizenship curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.