Making New Laws: Bills and Acts

The functions of Parliament are: making laws; providing money for the government through taxation; examining government policy, administration and spending; debating political questions.

Every year Parliament passes about a hundred laws directly, by making Acts of Parliament. Because this can be a long process. Parliament sometimes passes a very general law and leaves a minister to fill in the details. In this way, it indirectly passes about 2, 000 additional rules and regulations.

No new law can be passed unless it has completed a number of stages in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The monarch also has to give a Bill the Royal Assent, which is now just a formality. Since 1707 no sovereign has refused a Bill. There are two main types of Bills - Public Bills which deal with matters of public importance and Private Bills which deal with local matters and individuals.

Public and Private Bills are passed through Parliament in much the same way. When a Bill is introduced in the House of Commons, it receives a formal first reading. It is then printed and read a second time, when it is debated but not amended. After the second reading the Bill is referred to a committee, either a special committee made up of certain members of the House, or to the House itself as a committee. Here it is discussed in detail and amended, if necessary. The Bill is then presented for a third reading and is debated. If the Bill is passed by the Commons it goes to the Lords, and provided it is not rejected by them, it goes through the same procedure as in the Commons.

ВАРИАНТ V

I. Перепишите следующие предложения. Подчеркните в них слова, оформленные окончанием -s, и определите по грамматическим признакам, какой частью речи являются эти слова и какую функцию выполняет это окончание, т.е. служит ли оно:

а) показателем З-го лица единственного числа глагола в Present Indefinite;

б) признаком множественного числа имени существительного:

в) показателем притяжательного падежа имени существительного.

Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1.The legal science examines and generalizes criminal practices.

2.Man`s constructive activity and social progress are impossible without contacts, mutual assistance and exchange of ideas.

II. Перепишите следующие предложения, поставив прилагательные и наречия в указанную степень сравнения (сравнительную или превосходную). Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. The International Military Tribunal proclaimed aggression as the (grave - превосх.ст.) crime against humanity.

2. The (many - сравн.ст.) people attend court sessions, the (great - сравн.ст.) is the court`s educational function.

III. Поставьте следующие утвердительные предложения в вопросительную и отрицательную формы. Утвердительные предложения переведите на русский язык.

1. The investigator arrived at the crime scene.

2. I am a student of the Moscow Law Institute.

3. The detective will finish this work tomorrow.

IV. Перепишите следующие предложения, найдите в них и подчеркните неопределенные и отрицательные местоимения. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. We shall discuss some aspects of privatization at the next seminar.

2. The General Assembly proclaims that no state possesses the right to interfere in the internal or external affairs of any other state.

V. Перепишите следующие предложения, подчеркните в каждом из них глагол-сказуемое и определите его видовременную форму и залог. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. The Parliament Act 1911 has restricted the life of the House of Commons.

2. The accused is guaranteed the right to defence.

3. A group of police officers is investigating this criminal case now.

4. Juvenile courts were created in England by the Children`s Act (1908).

VI. Перепишите следующие предложения, подчеркните Participle I и Participle II и установите функции каждого из них, т.е. укажите, является ли причастие определением, обстоятельством или частью глагола-сказуемого. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. The leading countries of the world had adopted the Declaration of Invalids` Rights by 1992.

2. If applied to juvenile offenders this type of treatment gives good results.

3. While sentencing a person to a term of imprisonment the court determines in what institution the convicted criminal must serve his sentence.

VII. Перепишите следующие предложения, подчеркните в каждом из них модальный глагол или его эквивалент. Переведите предложения на русский язык.

1. At the scene of the crime the suspect may leave his fingerprints which can be used to identify him.

2. Sherlock Holmes was able to tell everything about every murder of the last hundred years.

3. The officer of the Economic Crimes Department is to reveal the criminal activity of the people who commit economic crimes.

VIII.Прочитайте и письменно переведите текст.