to liability; instead, it determines the degree of offence in that, if successful, it can reduce a murder charge to one of manslaughter and thus affect punishment. (c) Exemptions and defences relate to matters of substance. A third form of safeguard is purely procedural: the special plea in bar, or simply plea in bar, e.g. a plea of autrefois acquit. If successful, this destroys the prosecution's right of action completely. It is one form of what used to be called a peremptory plea. A plea to the jurisdiction, being merely dilatory, does not fall into this category. (d) Exemptions, defences and special pleas in bar all concern liability of some kind. To be distinguished from them are aggravating or mitigating circumstances, which determine the degree of pxmishment inflicted on the offender. It does not seem possible to draw any useful distinction between mitigating circumstances and extenuating circumstan.ces• A plea in mitigation is a statement made after conviction asking for mitigating circumstances to be taken into account by the judge in passing sentence. Here, the plea is not of the special kind mentioned in (c) above but simply a plea in the general sense of a contention which is pleaded. 11/ "Criminal liability": Cross and Jones, Greaves, OCL, Padfield; "Criminal responsibility": Curzon Criminal, Hampton, James. - 1116 - (il) Comparison with civil law tgrms The correspondence between the English terms mentioned above and their civil law counterparts can be expressed in approximate terras as follows: Precludes liability Nullifies liability: substantive Nullifies liability: procedural Affects punishment England exemption, immunity defence special plea in bar -.- circumstance France cause d'irresponsabilité 12/ exception» excuse ..., France páremptoire, fin de non-recevoir circonstance ... 13/ Chile, Spain exención, also called in Spain eximente, circunstancia exlraentç ^^^^p^ ^^^^ pi^ent.Qria circunstancia ... The French and Spanish terms cause, excuse and exçuga can be translated 
**Analysis**
The text appears to be discussing legal concepts and terminology, specifically in the context of criminal law. The language used is formal and technical, with references to specific legal terms and concepts. The text also compares English legal terms with those in civil law systems, such as France and Spain. This suggests that the text is related to the study of law and legal systems, rather than any of the other categories.

**Category**
Law, Education