A Discourse On The Principle, Methodology And Judicial Procedure For The Adjudication Of Criminal Cases Involving Civil Liability: A Holistic Treatment

Crimes are defined to be punishable acts under the criminal law, whereasmost crimes in practice also involve actual victims whose civil rights areseverely offended. Whence, justice against CICO[for crimes involving civiloffenses], which are the major concern of this article, should comprise bothPUNISHMENTS under the criminal law and DAMAGES under the civil law.Moreover, appropriate justice on CICO is of significant importance, withrespect to its peculiar function to restore with legal force the civil rights of theharmed to the furthest degree, and its ultimate mission of maintaining social andjuridical orders. Therefore, judgments on criminal cases should be made alignedwith the principle that the legal rights of all parties at steak-victims, the accusedand any third party, if any, should be protected in a proper and balanced way.Punishment for each criminal should be reasonable and damages to be imposedand distributed should be proportionate to the civil offenses involved. In viewthat criminal punishments and civil damages form justice in combination,heavier damages should suggest alleviated punishments. However, claims to damage under the civil law, to which in theory victimsof CICO are entitled, have not received the consideration they warrant in actualadjudications. Neither has the study how to judge these claims and how toallocate the damages amongst victims of the same case. In the followingexposition, I will discuss the correlation between crimes and the accompaniedcivil offenses, and the reciprocal relation between criminal punishments andcivil damages.