They are not afraid of the law. In US civil lawsuits are expensive as hell. That's not the case in a lot of other countries where systems are in place to resolve conflicts, before a judge, at a very low cost.
The US system is based on common law though which is in the minority of every other countries remember.
Both systems have their place. Common law systems tend to favor what people culturally perceive as the law as opposed to what is actually the law. My examples would be jim crow murderers getting away with killing black people and juries not convicting them even though clearly they did. Also recently the Oregan militia in the US that I believe killed a federal agent in a firefight was found not guilty by a jury for things any judge would've said they were in a heartbeat.
Basically common law is good when the government is after you and your peers as a jury hate the government more than you. Civil law is better when it flat out comes down to a competent individual interpreting the law fairly quick.
