The Californian constitution guarantees criminal defendants a right to speedy trial, but it does not technically require courts to administer civil law at all, Ms Feinstein says.

ECONOMIST: The judicial system

The parties that campaign for the "green vote" in Tunisia, Libya, or Egypt have different positions on the defining issue of Islamism - whether to govern by religious law or allow different authorities, notably civil courts, to continue.

BBC: What the rise of political Islam is likely to spell

Some Iraqis who were apparently mistreated in the American-run prison of Abu Ghraib have given up trying to seek redress through the criminal law and have instead lodged a civil suit in American courts against CACI, a company allegedly involved in the Abu Ghraib abuses.

ECONOMIST: Iraq

The parliament passed a law last month giving the soldiers immunity from prosecution in civil courts, but allowed military courts to discipline the troops if they were found to be guilty of any crimes committed during the operation.

BBC: Dhaka police jailed for extortion

Such drama is largely absent from Malaysia's sharia courts, which operate in parallel with civil ones and deal mostly with family law for the Muslim majority, annulling marriages and adjudicating custody disputes.

ECONOMIST: In search of a better way of dispensing justice in Malaysia