8. Criminal and civil cases

Laws fall into two major groups: criminal and civil. Criminal laws regulate public conduct and set out duties owed to society. A criminal case is a legal action by the government against a person charged with committing a crime. Criminal offenses are divided into felonies and misdemeanors. The maximum penalty for a felony is a term of more than one year in prison. For misdemeanor the penalty is a prison term of one year or less.

Civil Laws regulate relations between individuals or groups of individuals. A civil action can be brought when one person feels wronged or injured by another person.

Sometimes one action can violate both civil and criminal law.

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12. The Court system in Russia

The judiciary in Russia is split into three branches: the regular court system with the Supreme Court at the top, the arbitration court system with the High Court of Arbitration on top, and the Constitutional Court as a single body with no courts under it.

Whenever there is a dispute between business partners, the case is taken for trial by the courts of arbitration (business or economic courts in fact). The system of these courts is headed by the High Court of Arbitration.

But if a party to a civil case is a private citizen, not involved in business activities, the dispute has to be handled by a court of general jurisdiction.

The major link in the regular court system is Justice of the Peace. It serves each city district or rural district. As trial courts of general jurisdiction, the rayon courts handle over 90 % of all civil and criminal cases. Only a limited category of cases involving the most serious crimes falls directly under the jurisdiction of the next level of courts - the oblast courts.

In 1993 Russia started to experiment with jury trials (panels of twelve jurors). A jury trial is only available in serious crimes.