The New International Encyclopædia/Civil Procedure

CIVIL PROCEDURE. Legal procedure — the process whereby legal rights are protected and enforced, and violations of private or public rights punished. As commonly employed in English and American law, however, the term ‘civil’ refers to private as distinguished from public rights, and civil procedure would not include the processes of the tribunals in protecting the peace and vindicating the dignity of the State, i.e. criminal procedure. Neither does it cover any administrative process of the State, nor diplomatic or other action for the purpose of protecting the interests of citizens or subjects in foreign lands. See Procedure; International Law.