Vocabulary and Speech Exercises. I. Fill the gaps with prepositions; read and translate the text

I. Fill the gaps with prepositions; read and translate the text.

There is a total … 650 judges … Great Britain, although their duties vary … the different legal systems … England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Only about 3 per cent … judges are women. The majority are upper class, white males with an average age … 60, often educated … public schools and Oxford or Cambridge University. The Lord Chancellor, the highest judge … the land, which is also the head … the House of Lords, chooses new judges … the advice …. Other judges and important barristers, but nobody knows exactly how the process works or why decisions are taken.

Judges are usually men have been barristers … at least ten years.

II. Fill the gaps with the words from the box, read and translate the text.

Undergraduates, lecture, get, pass, tuition, courses (3), degree, lectures, enter, subjects, grant, note, graduate, postgraduate, lecturers, postgraduates.

If you want to … university, you must first … examinations that most students take at the age of eighteen (called A-level). Most students take three A-levels (three examinations in three different …) and they must do well in order to … a place at university because the places are limited. At the moment, about 30 % of young adults go to university in Britain.

If you get a place at university, the … is free, and some students also receive a …as well. Most university … last three years, some … last four years, and one or two … e.g. medicine, may be even longer. During this period students can say they are doing/studying law, or doing/studying for a … in law, for example.

At schools you have teachers and lessons at university you have … and …. When a lecturer gives a …, the students listen and take …, but do not usually say much, except to ask occasional questions.

Students at university are called … while they are studying for their first degree. When you complete your first degree, you are a …. Some students then go on to do a second degree - … course. They are ….

Read and translate this text

SOLICITORS AND BARRISTERS

England is almost unique in having two different kinds of lawyers, with separate jobs in the legal system. The two kinds of lawyers are solicitors and barristers.

If a person has a legal problem, he will go and see a solicitor. Almost every town will have at least one. In fact there are at least 50,000 solicitors in Britain, and the number is increasing.

Many problems are dealt with exclusively by a solicitor. For instance, the solicitor deals with petty crimes and some matrimonial matters in Magistrates Courts, the lowest Courts. He prepares the case and the evidence. He actually speaks in Court for you.

In a civil action he can speak in the County Court, when the case is one of divorce or recovering some debts. In the County Court the solicitor wear a black gown over his ordinary clothes.

A solicitor also deals with matters outside Court. He does the legal work involved in buying a house, for instance. He writes legal letters for you and carries on legal arguments outside Court. If you want to make a will the best man to advise you is a solicitor.

To qualify as a solicitors, a young man or a woman joins a solicitor as a “clerk” and works for him whilst studying part time for the “Law Society” exams. Interestingly enough, it is not necessary for you to go to university. When you have passed all the necessary exams, you can “practice”, which means you can start business on your own.

Barristers are different from solicitors. Barristers are experts in the interpretation of the Law. They are called in to advise on really difficult points. The barrister is also an expert on advocacy (the art of presenting cases in Court). Indeed, if you desire representation in any Court except the Magistrates Court, you must have a barrister, with one or two exceptions.

Barristers are rather remote figures. If you need one, for instance, you never see him without your solicitor being with him. Barristers do not have public offices in any street. They work in what are known as chambers, often in London. They all belong to institutions called Inns of Court, which are ancient organizations rather like exclusive clubs. In many ways the remoteness they have and the job they do are medieval in conceptions.

To qualify as a barrister you have to take the examinations of the Bar Council. These are different from solicitors examinations. There are over 5,000 barristers in England. A good one can earn 30,000 pounds a year. Only barristers can become judges in an English Court above a Magistrates Court.

UNIT 8

CRIME AND SOCIETY

Scan the text.

The police are the public servants whose duty is to detect and prevent crime. If the police believe that they have enough evidence to show that a person has committed a criminal offence, they will make an arrest. The accused person will be prosecuted and taken to court where there will be a trial to determine whether the person is innocent or guilty. The accused will be found guilty only if the people trying him or her are convinced beyond reasonable doubt that they committed the crime with which they are charged. The law under which the person is charged will define precisely what the prosecution must prove in order for the accused person to be convicted. For example if someone is charged with murder, the prosecution fails to prove the intention and shows only that the accused was very careless (“negligent”) they cannot be convicted of murder, although they might be convicted of manslaughter.

Similarly, in order for someone to be convicted of theft, it has to be proved against them beyond all reasonable doubt that they dishonestly took the property of another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it. If it is proved that the accused merely borrowed the property and intended to return it, they should not be convicted of theft.

Thus, in general, criminal offences have two elements: a physical element (for example, the act of killing a person, or the taking of property), and a mental element (the intention to kill, or the dishonest intention permanently to deprive). The prosecution must therefore prove not only that the accused did the unlawful physical act, but also what their intention was, for it is generally considered unfair and in the United States unconstitutional, to convict someone of a criminal offence which they did not mean to commit but committed only innocently or by accident.

To be effective punishment must be acceptable to the society in which it is used. If the majority of people think it is cruel or unreasonable, they will not cooperate in bringing people to justice or support the police. Similarly it must be carried out fairly, so that the same punishment is seen to be inflicted in the same circumstances. In Japan and USA the constitution forbids “cruel and unusual punishment”. This prevents the use of penalties much harsher than the harm caused by the crime. Punishment must be carried out quickly if it is to reform or deter. It will cease to be associated with the crime if delayed.

According to the theories of punishment there are three models of punishment – retribution, rehabilitation, and deterrence. Retribution is based on the premise that the offender is a reasonable person freely made the decision to violate the law, so the wrongdoer should be punished in such a way that the punishment fits the crime. Rehabilitation is the notion that punishment should rehabilitate or reform the behavior of offenders so that they will become law-abiders rather than lawbreakers. Deterrence refers both to discouraging this particular offender from further illegal acts and to deterring others from criminal activity.