Proceedings before a court of law are cither penal or remedial. In penal proceedings the law aims to secure the punishment of the defendant. In remedial proceedings, on the oilier hand, the idea of punishment is entirely absent.
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It is enforced by specific performance of the contract and actions for restitution. All criminal proceedings are penal; but the converse is not true, for there are civil proceedings which are merely penal and there are civil proceedings which are merely remedial.
Primary Functions of Courts of Law:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The primary functions of a court of law are the administration of justice, viz., the application by the Slate of the sanction of physical force to the rules of justice.
Justice is administered by a court by the enforcement of a right and the punishment of wrongs. It involves in every case two parties, namely, a plaintiff and a defendant, the prosecutor or complainant and the accused, and a judgment in favour of the one or the other.
Secondary Functions of Courts of Law:
The secondary functions of courts of law consist of activities which, though primarily exercisable by the State, have for the sake of convenience been delegated lo the courts of law.
The secondary functions of the courts are rapidly increasing with the growth of civilization. Under the English Law they have been classified by Salmond into four groups:
1. Petition of Right:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
If a subject claims a debt or any other right against the Stale, or raises an action for breach of a contract against the Slate, he can file a petition of right in a court of law. The court will investigate the claim and pronounce judgment in accordance with law. Bui as the courts form part of the State itself, no one can compel the Slate to act and the necessary sanction or the element of coercive force cannot be exercised against the defendant.
2. Declaration of Dight:
A litigant may require the assistance of a court of law not only for the enforcement of any right but also for a declaration that such a right exists. He seeks the assistance of the courts because his rights, though not violated, are uncertain. Examples of declaratory proceedings are declaration of legitimacy, declaration of nullity of marriage, etc.
3. Administration:
A third form of secondary judicial action includes those cases where the court undertakes the management and distribution of properly by means of the administration of trust, liquidation of a company by the court or realisation and distribution of an insolvent casual.
4. Titles of Right:
Sometimes judicial decrees are employed as the means of creating, extinguishing or transferring rights, e.g., a divorce decoct, a decoct ordering judicial separation, or an adjudication of insolvency. In such cases the judgment does not operate as the remedy of a wrong, but as the little of a right.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The secondary functions of courts of law are of civil as opposed to criminal nature.