Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. Examples include the right to vote and anti-discrimination laws. Civil rights movements usually want equal protection of the laws for minorities, as well as new laws outlawing discrimination and its vestiges. Civil rights effectively upholds the values of positive liberty.

A contract is any legally-enforceable promise or set of promises made by one party to another and, as such, reflects the policies represented by freedom of contract. In the civil law, contracts are considered to be part of the general law of obligations.

Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of law that punishes criminals for committing offences against the state. The goal of this process is that of achieving criminal justice. The major objective of criminal law is deterrence and punishment.

A legal judgment that severs the marriage of two people and restores them to the status of single persons. Also call a dissolution of marriage.

The passage thorough the court of the material wealth of an individual to their heirs.