Read the text below carefully and answer the questions as briefly as possible.
1. What laws are involved in this story?
2. Which of these are criminal laws?
3. Which are civil laws?
Matt and Luther decide to skip school. They take Luther's brother's car without telling him and drive to a local shopping center. Ignoring the sign ‘Parking’ for Handicapped Persons Only, they leave the car and enter a radio and TV shop.
After looking around they buy a portable AM-FM radio. Then they buy some sandwiches from a street vendor and walk to a nearby park. While eating they discover that the radio does not work. In their hurry to return it, they leave their trash on the park bench.
When Matt and Luther get back to the shopping center, they notice a large dent (вмятина) in one side of their car. The dent appears to be the result of a driver's carelessly backing out of the next space. They also notice that the car has been broken into and that the tape deck has been removed.
They call the police to report the accident and theft. When the police arrive, they seize a small clear bag containing illegal drugs from behind the car's back seat. Matt and Luther are arrested.
Comment on the following differences in legal consequences for felonies and misdemeanors. Compare them with those in your country.
| Felonies | Misdemeanors |
| *capital punishment possible (in some states) | |
| *imprisonment in state prison | *stay in county jail |
| *sentence of a year or more year | |
| *considered serious crime | *considered minor crime |
| *conviction usually bars person from certain professions | |
| *convicted person may be deported if an alien | |
| *arrest may occur at any time | *arrest may occur only if act committed in presence of officer |
| *may require an indictment for trial | *normally is triable on an information |
Read for Enjoyment
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A man accused of stealing a watch was acquitted on insufficient evidence. Outside the courtroom he approached his lawyer and said,
“What does that mean-acquitted?”
“It means,” said the lawyer, “that the court has found you innocent. You are free to go.”
“Does it mean I can keep the watch?” asked the client.
UNIT 8
For Study
1. Vocabulary
· duress n - принуждение
duress of goods - незаконный арест имущества
duress of imprisonment - незаконное лишение свободы
e.g. Duress is not a defence to a charge of murder as a principal.
· insanity n - невменяемость
syn. madness
e.g. If found to be insane the defendant is given a special verdict of "not guilty by reason of insanity."
· mitigation n - смягчение
mitigation of punishment - смягчение наказания
e.g. The injured party is under a duty to take all reasonable steps towards the mitigation of his loss when claiming damages.
Supply the sentences with the missing words, given in brackets below.
(mitigation, insanity, intoxicated, duress)
1. If found not guilty by reason of ... the defendant may be admitted to hospital.
2. Acts carried out under ... .usually have no legal effect.
3. In Belarus an ... person is responsible for his actions especially while driving a car.
4. Family circumstances were considered to be a fact of ... raised by the prosecution.
Reading Practice
Read the text and pay attention to different types of defences. Compare sets of defences in your country and in England.
Defences
1. If actus and mens have been proved, a defendant may still avoid guilt if he can show he has a defence - a reason the court should excuse his act. Different systems of law recognize different and usually limited sets of defences. For example, English law sometimes allows the defence of duress - being forced to commit a crime because of threats that you or someone else will be harmed if you don't. Duress may be used as a defence against the charge of murder as a secondary party (helping the murderer), but is not available if the defendant is charged as the principal murderer.
2. Another defence is that of insanity. In most countries a person cannot be found guilty of a crime if in a doctor's opinion he cannot have been responsible for his actions because of mental illness. But this defence requires careful proof. If it is proved the defendant will not be sent to a prison, but instead to a mental hospital.
It might be argued that a person is not responsible for his actions if he is intoxicated-drunk or under the influence of drugs. In fact, an intoxicated person may not even know what he is doing and thus lacks mens rea. However, in Britain and many other countries, there is a general principle that people who knowingly get themselves intoxicated must be held responsible for their acts. Consequently, intoxication is not a defence.
3. Nearly every system of law recognizes the defence of self-defence. In English law, a defendant can avoid guilt for injuring someone if he can convince the court that the force he used was reasonable to protect himself in the circumstances. In some countries, shooting and unarmed burglar would be recognized as self-defence, but in other it might be considered unreasonable force. The concept of defence should not be confused with that of mitigation-reasons your punishment should not be harsh. If a person has a defence, the court finds him not guilty. It is only after being found guilty that a defendant may try to mitigate his crimes by explaining the specific circumstances at the time of the crime. In France, the defence of crime of passion is sometimes used to lessen the sentence: that your act was directly caused by the unreasonable behaviour of your lover.
4. Although most criminal laws in the world refer to acts of violence or theft, there are laws regulating almost every kind of human behaviour: for example, what we do with our land; what we say and write; how we run our business; even what we wear. Sometimes governments "create new crimes" by identifying a form of behaviour and passing a new law to deal with it. In most industrialized countries existing theft laws were not adequate to deal with computer crimes where complex kinds of information are stolen, altered or used to deceive other, and, thus, new laws have been passed.
5. Technical change is one reason criminal law is one of the fastest growing areas of the law. Another reason is that the number of crimes committed in some countries seems to be increasing rapidly-although sometimes it is not clear whether people are breaking the law more, being caught more, or reporting other people's crimes more. One more reason is that different societies or perhaps it is different governments-continually review their ideas of what should and shouldn't be considered a crime. Homosexual acts, suicide and blasphemy (attacking religion) were once crimes in all European countries, but have now mostly been decriminalized. On the other hand, discrimination against someone on the grounds of race or sex was not acknowledged as a crime until relatively recently, and is still not recognized in some countries. Recent cases of euthanasia (shortening the life of sick person) are causing re-evaluations of the concept of murder.
Comprehension Check