Exercise 2. Match English and Russian equivalents.
1) низшие суды a) to be elevated to the bench
2) юридическая профессия b) judiciary system
3) высшие суды с) at random
4) увольнять d) social classes
5) система присяжных е) legal profession
6) юридическая система f) trial
7) большое количество g) lower courts
8) наугад h) higher courts
9) судебное разбирательство i) legal adviser
10)юрисконсульт j) to dismiss
11)возвыситься до положения k) heavy concentration судьи
12)социальные классы I) the jury system
PART 12
Text 1
Tort law
Tort — in common law, any instance of harmful behaviour, from physical attack on one's person to interference with one's goods or use and enjoyment of one's land, economic interests, and honour, reputation and privacy. The concept encompasses only those civil wrongs independent of contracts. Throughout its long history tort has pursued different aims: punishment, appeasement, deterrence, compensation, and efficient loss spreading of the cost of accidents. None offers a complete justification; all are important, though at different stages one may have been more prominent than the rest.
Tort law is considered to have following purposes: to compensate people for wrongs suffered; to place the cost of that compensation upon those who, in justice, ought to bear it (an issue of fairness
rtiich is absent in the criminal law); to prevent future losses and harms (deterrence); to vindicate the one wronged; to deter victims from having to make an individual letaliation for wrongs done.
Exc.1 Find the synonyms to the following words and word combinations:
| - to break the law; - on the edge of; - an aggressive person; - satisfaction; - a general term; - in fact | - a disease - different reasons - to be tried - to happen immediately - to be called - shirking school |
Exc.2 Give Russian equivalents to the words given in bold type.
KINDS OF TORTS
There are two chief categories of torts: intentional tortsand torts resulting from negligence.The core element in an intentional tort is an intent, or purpose, to cause harm to another. The law providesthat a person has intent if he or she desires to cause the consequences of his or her act,or believes that the consequences are substantially certain result from the act.Intentional torts fall intotwo categories: torts against a personand torts against property.
Negligence refers to the failure of a person to exercise sufficient care in his or her conduct.When a person's conduct falls below the reasonable expectation of society and causes foreseeable harm to another,the person has acted negligently.Society's expect known in torts based on negligence as the legal duty of care— is that an individual reasonably prudent and careful personwould act in similar circumstances.A person can act negligently by doing something that a reasonable person would not do or by failing something that a reasonable person would do. The law does not require that the person has an intent to cause harm.
Text 2
Capital punishment
The ultimate penalty is death (capital punishment). It is carried out by hanging (Kenya, for example); electrocution, gassing or lethal injection eheading or stoning (Saudi Arabia); or shooting (China). Although most countries still have a death penalty, 62 (including almost every European nation) have abolished it; 18 retain it only for exceptional crimes such as wartime offences; and 27 no longer carry out executions even when a death sentence has been passed. In other words, almost half the countries of the world have ceased to use the death penalty. The UN has declared itself in favour of abolition, Amnesty International actively campaigns for abolition, and the issue is now the focus of great debate.
Supporters of capital punishment believe that death is a just punishment for certain serious crimes. Many also believe that it deters others from committing such crimes. Opponents argue that execution is cruel and uncivilized. Capital punishment involves not only the pain of dying (James Autry took ten minutes to die of lethal injection in Texas, 1984) but also the mental anguish of waiting, sometimes for years, to know if and when the sentence will be carried out. Opponents also argue that there is no evidence that it deters people from committing murder any more than imprisonment does. A further argument is that, should a mistake be made, it is too late to rectify it once the execution has taken place. In 1987, two academics published a study showing that 28 innocent people had been executed in the United States. Research has shown that capital punishment is used inconsistently. During a crime wave in China in the 1980s, cities were given a quota of executions to meet; in a city where there weren't very many murders, people convicted of lesser crimes were more likely to be executed. In addition, while in some countries young people are not sent to prison but to special juvenile detention centres, in Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, Barbados and the United States children under 18 have been legally put to death.
As the debate about capital punishment continues, the phenomenon of death row (people sentenced but still alive) increases. The debate also involves the question of what punishment is for. Is the main aim to deter? This was certainly the case in the 18th century England when the penalty for theft was supposed to frighten people from stealing and compensate for inabilities to detect and catch thieves. Is it revenge or retribution? Is it to keep criminals out of society? Or is it to reform and rehabilitate them?
Exc.1 Read and memorize the active vocabulary:
to create to modify
to abolish
to apply
to observe
to enact
to execute
to break
to violate
to enforce
to practice
to teach
to outlaw
to keep with
to stick
to to amend
to refer
to reject to file
to consider
to satisfy
to justify
to investigate to submit to handle to consider to institute
to dismiss to try to hear to lose to examine to win
to initiate to introduce -to debate to approve to pass to amend
to confer
to sign
to reject
to shelve
to postpone
An innocent person
an applicant
a claimant a private person
an assaulted — (an eye)witness / a plaintiff-in-cross /
a victim / an acquitted the injured /
PART 13
Text 1
Property law
Property law includes principles, policies, and rules by which disputes over property are to be resolved and by which property transactions may be structured so that disputies may be avoided. What distinguishes property from other kinds of law is that the principles, policies, and rules of property law deal with the relationships between and among members of a society with respect to «things».
Property is frequently defined as the rights of a personwith respect to a thing. The things may be tangible, such as land or a factoryor a diamond ring, or they may be intangible, such as stocks and bonds or a bank account. Property law, then, deals with the allocation, use, and transfer of welth and the objects of wealth. As such, it reflects the economy of the society in which it is found. Since it deals with the control and transfer of wealth between spouses and across generations, property law reflects the family structure of the society in which it is found. Since it deals with such fundamental issues as the economy and the structure of the family.