In its original sense, this word means pertaining or appropriate to a member of a civitas or free political community; natural or proper to a citizen. Also, relating to the community, or to the policy and government of the citizens and subjects of a state. In the language of the law, It has various significations. In contradistinction to barbarous or savage, it indicates a state of society reduced to order and regular government; thus, we speak of civil life, civil society, civil government, and civil liberty . In contradistinction to criminal, it indicates the private rights and remedies of men, as members of the community, in contrast to those which are public and relate to the government ; thus, we speak of civil process and criminal process, civil jurisdiction and criminal jurisdiction . It is also used in contradistinction to military or ecclesiastical , to natural or foreign; thus, we speak of a civil station, as opposed to a military or an ecclesiastical station; a civil death, as opposed to a natural death ; a civil war, as opposed to a foreign war. Story, Const, i 791.
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