> I'm totally unfamiliar with French Civil law; can contract law ever be punishable with any prison time?
Private parties in most countries can’t prosecute criminal charges anyhow, and limitations on the mechanisms of pursuing civil [0] law claims by private parties don't generally have any effect on criminal prosecution by the State, since even with the same common name for an area of law, the precise definitions in criminal law are different than civil law.
[0] used here in contradistinction to “criminal” as an area of law, not to “Common” as a system of law, since both distinctions have been relevant in the thread.
Private parties in most countries can’t prosecute criminal charges anyhow, and limitations on the mechanisms of pursuing civil [0] law claims by private parties don't generally have any effect on criminal prosecution by the State, since even with the same common name for an area of law, the precise definitions in criminal law are different than civil law.
[0] used here in contradistinction to “criminal” as an area of law, not to “Common” as a system of law, since both distinctions have been relevant in the thread.