Civil Law

Civil law encompasses several branches of the law, and its purpose is to regulate relationships between two parties. The two parties could be individuals, an individual and a business or two businesses.

The branches of civil law include family law, labour law (employment law), tort law (the law of damages), land law (property law), contract law and private international law. The principles on which civil law is based are common to all branches. These principles are: corrective justice, distributive justice, the principle of good faith, and that no wrongdoer should be rewarded for his misdeeds.

Rules of the Civil Court

The laws used in civil courts are many and varied. They include, amongst others, land law, contract law, labour law, family law, private international law, the statute of limitations, rental and borrowing law, the law of warranty, and the law of security.

In which courts are civil lawsuits handled?

Civil claims are handled by one of three courts: the first is the Magistrate’s court, the second the District court and the third is the Small Claims court.

In the event of an appeal against the judgment of one of these courts, it will be handled by the Supreme Court.

Click below for more information:
Family law
Labour Law
Tort law
Property Law

Contract law
Contract law encompasses every kind of contract. It defines the principles, rules and standards of accountability of any contract.

For example, it is contract law which determines the compensation when there is breach of contract. A contract is not a simple agreement; an agreement has no legal effect whereas a contract does have legal effect.

Private International Law
International law deals with legal issues involving a foreigner, a foreign company, a foreign business or a foreign country. Usually it deals with matters of contracts, harm or damage, but the fact that one party to the lawsuit is foreign means that Israel must consider the differences between the laws in our courts and those of the other country.

Essentially, private international law must decide which country has jurisdiction in a particular case, which laws are applicable and the importance of foreign judgments in relation to the local court.

For instance: Consider a contract between a Frenchman and a German, signed in Switzerland but made in Belgium. The contract was broken, so the Frenchman is suing the German, but according to German law, a contract is made in the country where the contract was signed, and therefore the matter must be settled in Switzerland.

But Swiss law says that accountability lies in the country where the business is located.

Since this is a circular argument with no obvious solution, private international law will intervene to help find a solution to the satisfaction of all parties.