Task 1. Study the text below, making sure you fully comprehend it. Where appropriate, consult English-Russian dictionaries and/or other reference & source books on law.
Law is a body of official rules and regulations, generally found in constitutions, legislation, judicial opinions, and the like, that is used to govern a society and to control the behavior of its members. The nature and functions of law have varied throughout history. In modern societies, some authorized body such as a legislature or a court makes the law. It is backed by the coercive power of the state, which enforces the law by means of appropriate penalties or remedies.
Law serves a variety of functions. Laws against crimes, for example, help to maintain a peaceful, orderly, relatively stable society. Courts contribute to social stability by resolving disputes in a civilized fashion. Property and contract laws facilitate business activities and private planning. Laws limiting the powers of government help to provide some degree of freedom that would not otherwise be possible. Law has also been used as a mechanism for social change; for instance, at various times laws have been passed to inhibit social discrimination and to improve the quality of individual life in matters of health, education, and welfare.
Law is not completely a matter of human enactment; it also includes natural law. The best-known version of this view, that God's law is supreme, has had considerable influence in the United States and other Western societies. The civil rights movement, for example, was at least partially inspired by the belief in natural law. Such a belief seems implicit in the view that law should serve to promote human dignity, as for instance by the enforcement of equal rights for all.
Law develops as society evolves. Many primitive communities knew law as a blend of custom, morality, religion, and magic. Even a later legal system, known as the Common law of England, began with common customs, but over time it involved the Courts into the law-making process that was responsive to changes in the society.
| ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS |
1. What is law?
2. Who makes law in modern societies?
3. Is there any distinction between law and morality?
4. What are the functions of law?
5. What is the role of natural law in modern life?
6. What kind of law existed in primitive communities?
7. What did the Common Law of England begin with?
| Task 2. Find in the texts above the English equivalents for the following words and expressions: | |
| Свод официальных правил сила принуждения следить за исполнением закона посредством соответствующих наказаний и средств правовой защиты обращение к правовому разрешению спора разнообразные функции | вносить вклад в стабильность общества улучшать качество жизни людей результат человеческой деятельности осуществление всеобщего равноправия законотворческий процесс юриспруденция | |
Task 3. (a) Match the English expressions with their Russian equivalents in the table:
| NB | Law — (1) право; (2) закон; (3) судебная | ||
| (1) inheritance law | (a) административное право | ||
| (2) housing law | (b) прецедентное право | ||
| (3) executive law | (c) договорное право | ||
| (4) environmental law | (d) общее право | ||
| (5) employment law | (e) конституционное право | ||
| (6) contract law | (f) авторское право | ||
| (7) copyright law | (g) трудовое право | ||
| (8) constitutional law | (h) правовые нормы по охране окружающей среды | ||
| (9) common law | (i) правовые нормы, регулирующие деятельность исполнительной власти | ||
| (10) case law | (j) жилищное право | ||
| (11) administrative law | (k) наследственное право | ||
(b) Match the legal terms on the left with their definitions on the right:
| (1) Constitutional law deals with | (a) relations between governments as well as between private citizens of one country and those of another. |
| (2) International law regulates | (b) the budget, taxation, state credits, and other spheres of financial activity. |
| (3) Public law concerns | (c) the relationships between individuals or bodies within the country. This field of law is connected with relations in the economic sphere of life, with relations involving property, its distribution and exchange. |
| (4) Financial law regulates | (d) disputes between citizens and the state, or between one state and another. |
| (5) Civil law regulates | (e) the relationships between the state and individual people and bodies. It defines the general principles of criminal responsibility, individual types of crimes and punishment applied to criminals. |
| 6) Criminal law regulates | (f) social structure, organization of state power and the legal status of citizens. Its principal source is the country's Constitution. |
Task 4. (a) Match the English expressions with their Russian equivalents in the table:
| (1) to create law | (a) применять закон |
| (2) to apply law | (b) нарушать закон |
| (3) to violate / break law | (c) осуществлять закон, проводить закон в жизнь |
| (4) to enforce law | (d) создавать закон |
| (5) to amend law | (e) придерживаться закона |
| (6) to observe law | (f) законопослушные граждане |
| (7) to keep within law | (g) соблюдать закон |
| (8) law-abiding citizens | (h) вносить поправки в закон |
| (9) law and order | (i) правонарушитель |
| (10) law-breaker | (j) правопорядок |
(b) By whom (a judge, a lawyer, a policeman, etc.) can the following actions be performed?
to investigate
to sentence
to plead guilty
to search
to apprehend
to detain
to seize
to convict
to defend in court
to imprison
to lock up
to take into custody
Debate: LAW AND MORALITY
· What do you think about the connection between law and morality?
· Does law really work in our society?
Task 5. Study the information below, making sure you fully comprehend it. Answer the questions.
SCIENCE OF THE LAW
Another important notion in the sphere of law is jurisprudence (Latin jurisprudentia, from jus, «law», and prudentia, «knowledge»), knowledge of the law and its interpretation, or the science and philosophy of law. In ancient Rome the term was used in the former sense. Those who were so skilled in the law that they could decide a novel or doubtful case were called juris prudentes, whether or not they were judges, and the body of law built up by their interpretation was called juris prudentia. This development of law by interpretation is akin to what English-speaking peoples call «case» law — law arising from a body of decided cases; in France and Spain the term jurisprudence is still used in that sense.
The word jurisprudence is usually used to describe what was often called at an earlier period the philosophy of law and what Continental writers now call the theory or science of law.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
1. What is the history of the term jurisprudence?
2. In what way does law originates?
3. What does jurisprudence formulate, classify and analyze?
Task 6. Use the verbs related to legal matters given in the box to complete the sentences:
(a)
| to consider, to commit x 2, to prove, to sentence, to sue, to bribe, to find |
(1) In many legal systems it is an important principle that a person cannot be _________ guilty of a crime until the state proves he ________ it.
(2) The suspect doesn't need ________ anything, but he can show evidence of his innocence.
(3) Malice aforethought refers to the mens rea of the crime and is a way of saying that the murderer intended to _________ a crime.
(4) Different societies continually review their ideas of what should and shouldn't be _________ a crime.
(5) The judge _________ him to ten years of imprisonment.
(6) The company fired him after the accident, but his advocate helped him to _______ the company for $20,000.
(7) He tried to _________ the judge to get the charges dropped.
(b)
| to charge, to pick, to convict, to confess, to accuse, to send, to award, to compensate, to cause, to acquit, to cross-examine, to find |
(1) When he was _______ he contradicted his earlier testimony.
(2) Most solicitors don't _______ for the first consultation.
(3) The thief _________ his pocket on the street without his noticing.
(4) He will obviously be ____ guilty, it is a flagrant case of corruption.
(5) There was insufficient evidence for the court to _______ her.
(6) The police were _______ of using torture to make suspects _____.
(7) He was ________ to prison for two years but with his lawyer's help he was _________ after the second consideration of his case.
(8) He was _______ $10 000 to ________the damages _______ by the manufacturer.
QUOTATIONS FOR COMMON DISCUSSION
Дата: 2019-02-02, просмотров: 1143.
