Main features of law in great britain

Each country in the world has its own system of law. There are two main traditions of law in the world. One based on English Common law. The other tradition is known as Continental, or Roman law.

Common law is also called Anglo-American law, the body of customary law, based upon judicial decisions and embodied in reports of decided cases, which has been administered by the common law courts of England since The Middle ages. Common law is a case-by-case process of development of three branches of law (Criminal, Civil, and Equity) and of three sub-branches of Civil law (Property, Torts and Contract).

British law is dividedinto two parts — civil and criminal. There are also two types of courts — dealing with civil jurisdiction and the other, with criminal jurisdiction. The law of Britain distinguishes offences into main cate­gories: a) indictable offences and b) non-indictable offences. Indictable offences are the more serious crimes, which must be tried before a jury. Non-indictable offences are all the rest and they are tried by the Magistrates' Court. However, nowadays there are many offences which may either be treated on indictment by a jury or by a Magistrates' Court. When a person is brought before the magistrates' Court charged with one of the overlapping offences, the court may in many cases treat the charge as being for a non-indictable offence. The principal courts of ordinary criminal jurisdiction in England and Wales include:

a) Magistrates' Courts, which try the less serious offences and conduct preliminary inquiries into the more serious offences. They are presided overby Justices of the Peace;

b) Quarter Sessions which take place at least four times a year. They deal with more serious offences and are presided over either by a legally qualifiedchairman with a group of magistrates or by a single lawyer;

c) Assizes which are branches of the High Court and are presided over by High Court Judges. They deal with the most serious offences and cases presenting special difficulties.

New legislation in Britain usually starts in the House of Lords. In each house a bill is considered in three stages, called readings. The first reading is purely formal, to introduce the bill. The second reading is usually the occasion for debate. After the second reading the bill is examined in detail by a committee.

The bill is then returned to one of the houses for the report stage, when it can be amended. If passed after its third reading, it goes to the other house. Amendments made to a bill by the House of Lords must be considered by the Commons. If the House of Commons does not agree, the bill is altered and sent bask to the Lords. In the event of persistent disagreement between the two houses, Commons prevails.

Finally, the bill goes to the reigning monarch for the royal assent. Nowadays the royal assent is merely a formality. In theory the queen could still refuse her consent, but the last monarch to use this power was Queen Anne, who vetoed the unpopular Scottish Militia Bill in 1707.

Notes:

indictable - подлежащий рассмотрению в суде, уголовный

Justice of the Peace - Мировой Судья

quarter sessions - ежеквартальные судебные сессии

assizes - выездные сессии суда присяжных, выездные сессии Верховного Суда

Divide the text into logically connected parts. Summarize the ideas and the answers to the following questions to write a précis about English system of law.

1. What is the main principle of Anglo-American law?

2. What are the main distinctive divisions of British law?

3. Give main characteristics of the principal courts in England and Wales.

4. Where does new legislation start in Great Britain?

5. What is the procedure of bringing and passing the bill in England?

6. Which House is the main in passing the bill?

LAW IN THE USA

The judicial power of the United States is the third branch of the Federal Government. It consists of a system of courts spread throughout the country and is headed by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Congress has the authority to create and abolish federal courts, as well as to determine the number of judges in the federal judicial system. However, the Congress cannot abolish the Supreme Court.

The United States has two systems of law, state and federal. It means that in addition to federal courts each state has its own judicial system including its own Supreme Court.

The federal judges are appointed by the President for life, in practice, until they die, retire or resign. They can be removed from the office only for misconduct and after trial in the Congress.

Federal courts have judicial power over cases arising out of the Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States, maritime cases, cases dealing with foreign citizens or governments and cases arising between states. Usually federal courts do not hear cases arising out of the laws of individual states.

The federal and states courts have the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional, that is in violation of the Constitution. By Constitution the courts have the power to hear and decide the two classes of cases - criminal and civil.

The Supreme Court, the highest court in the country and the head of the judicial branch of the US Government, consists of a Chief Justice and eight associate Justices.

One of the most important duties of the Supreme Court justices is to decide whether laws passed by the Congress agree with the Constitution. If the Supreme Court decides that the Constitution does not give Congress the power to passes a certain law, the Court will declare that law to be unconstitutional. Such a law will never come into force. Decisions of the Court are taken by a simple majority. The legal quorum of Justices, participating in the decision, is six (out of nine).

Immediately below the Supreme Court stand the courts of appeals, created in 1891 to hear most of the appeals growing out of district court actions. Only the Supreme Court reviews the decisions of the appeals courts.

Below the courts of appeals are the district courts. The 50 states are divided into 89 districts. Additionally, there is one in the District of Columbia and one in Puerto Rico, which is not a state, but part of the USA. Each state has at least one district court.

Most cases start in district courts. Cases begun in state courts are occasionally transferred to them. Almost all accused of committing federal crimes are tried in the district courts.

The Constitution gives Congress the authority to establish other courts for special purposes. One of the most important of these special courts is the Court of Claims, which was established in 1855. It deals with monetary claims against the federal Government. Usually claims are for unpaid salary, property taken for public use, contractual obligation, etc. Another important special court is the Customs Court, which have exclusive jurisdiction over cases, connected with taxes or quotas on important goods. The United States has the most complex judicial system in the world.

Pick out an idea or a phrase in every paragraph, which you think is most informative. Summarize the ideas and the answers to the following questions to write a précis about American law.

1. What branch is the third of the Federal Government?

2. Which two systems of law are there in the USA? What does it mean?

3. What cases do federal courts deal with?

4. Which court is the highest court in the country? What does it consist of?

5. How many district courts are there in the USA?

6. Name the most important special courts. What cases do they deal with?

SUPPLEMENTARY IV. TESTS

To Unit 1