When was Police Service created? Когда была создана полицейская служба?

Task 1. Find in the text sentences with Passive construction.

Task 2. Make the following statements in Passive:

1) Sh.Holmes detected many crimes.

2) The British Statesman Sir Robert Peel established the London Police in 1829.

3) The Romans achieved a high level of law enforcement.

4) The witness identifies an offender.

5) The police officer arrested a criminal.

6) The jury accused an offender.

7)An attorney defended an offender.

UNIT 4

Society and Law

Constitutional law

Constitutional law is the branch of the public law of a nation or state which treats of the organization, powers and frame of government, the distribution of political and governmental authorities and functions, the fundamental principles which are to regulate the relations of government and citizen. Modern constitutional law is the offspring of nationalism as well as of the idea that the state must protect central fundamental rights of the individual. As national states have multiplied in number, so have constitutional law. But constitutional law originates today sometimes from non-national sources too, while the protection of individual rights has become the concern also of supranational institutions/

Constitutions and constitutional law.

Every political community, and thus every national state, has a constitution. Constitutions may be written or unwritten; they may be complex or simple. The constitution of a political community may contain more, than the definition of the authorities. It may also include principles that delimit those powers in order to secure right of persons or groups. Today, almost all states have constitutional documents describing the fundamental organs of the state, the ways they should operate, and, usually, the rights they must respect and even sometimes the goals they ought to pursue.

Every state has a constitution, since every state functions on the basis of central rules and principles. The British constitution includes the Bill of Rights (1689), the Act of Settlement (1700-01), the Parliament Act of 1911, the successive Representation of the People acts.

Unitary, federal, and regionalist systems

No modern state can govern a country only from a central point. The affairs of municipalities and rural areas must be left to the administration of local governments. In all modern states there are two levels of government: the central government and the local governments. But in a number of states between the two levels there exists still a third governments of regions. States with two levels of government are called unitary, with three levels federal or “regionalist”.

Classifying state as federal, regionalist, or unitary may be difficult. The United States and Switzerland are clearly federal states, although the role of states and cantons has shrunk much since World War I. Canada is also a federal state. The federal Republic of Germany is federal in all respects. Italy and Spain are states with regional governments. Great Britain and France are unitary states. Northern Ireland had special autonomy within the United Kingdom and Scotland and Wales would have had special autonomy but in referendums their people rejected the devolution plans offered by the British Parliament.

Administrative law

According to Black’s Law Dictionary, administrative law is the body of law created by administrative agencies in the form of rules, regulations, orders, and decisions. Administrative law is the legal framework within which public administration is carried out. Administrative law is of constitutional and political, as well as juridical importance.

There is no universally accepted definition of administrative law. Administrative law is to a large extent complemented by constitutional law. The organization of a national legislature, the structure of the courts, the characteristics of a cabinet, and the role of the head of state are generally regarded as matters of constitutional law, the substantive and procedural provisions relating to central and local governments and judicial review of administration are reckoned matters of administrative law.

The law relating to public health, education, housing, and other public services could be regarded as part of the corpus of administrative law.

Criminal law

Criminal law is the body of law that defines criminal offenses, regulates the apprehension, charging, and trial of suspected persons, and fixes penalties and modes of treatment applicable to convicted offenders.

Criminal law is only one by which societies protect the security of individual interests and assure the survival of the group. There are, the standards of conduct instilled by family, school, and religion; the rules of the office and factory; the regulations of civil life enforced by ordinary police powers; and the sanctions available through tort actions. The distinction between criminal law and tort law is difficult to draw, but in general one may say that a tort is a private injury while a crime is conceived as an offense against the public, although the actual victim may be an individual.

Principles of criminal law

The purpose of criminal sanctions was to make the offender give retribution for harm done and expiate his moral guilt; punishment was to be meted out in proportion to the guilt of the accused. Writers of the Enlightenment such as Cesare Beccaria in Italy, Montesquieu and Voltaire in France, Jeremy Bentham in Britain considered the main purpose of criminal law to be the prevention of crime.

Tax law

Tax law is body of rules under which a public authority collect taxes has a claim on taxpayers, requiring them to transfer to the authority part of their income or property. The power to impose taxes is a right of government. The tax law of a nation is usually unique to it, although there are similarities and common elements in the laws of various countries.

In general, tax law is concerned only with the legal aspects of taxation. Not with its financial, economic, or other aspects.. kinds of taxes, the general level of taxation, and the rates of specific taxes, for example, , does not fall into the domain of tax law; it is a political, not a legal, process.

Tax law falls within the domain of public law – i.e., the rules that determine and limit the activities and reciprocal interests of the political community and the members composing it. Tax law can also be divided into material tax law, and formal tax law. The development of tax law as a comprehensive, general system is a recent phenomenon. The British system of income taxation is one of the oldest in the world, originated in the act of 1799 as a temporary means for meeting the increasing financial burden of the Napoleonic Wars. The limits to the right of the public authority to impose taxes are set by the power that is qualified to do so under constitutional law. In a democratic system this power is the legislature, not the executive or the judiciary.

Procedural law

Procedural law, also called ADJECTIVE LAW, is the law governing the machinery of the courts and the methods by which both the state and the individual (the latter including societies, whether incorporated or not) enforce their rights in the several courts. It prescribes the means of enforcing rights or providing redress of wrongs and practice, evidence, appeal, execution of judgments, representation of counsel, costs, conveyancing and registration, and other matters. Procedural law is commonly contrasted with substantive law, which constitutes the great body of law and regulates legal rights and duties.

Law of Contract

The law of contracts considers such questions as whether a contract exists; what the meaning of it is, whether a contract has been broken, and what compensation is due the injured party.

In the simplest definition, contract is a promise enforceable by law. The promise may be to do something or to refrain from doing something. The making of a contract requires the mutual assent of two or more persons, one of them ordinarily making an offer and another accepting. If one of the parties fails to keep the promise, the other is entitled to legal recourse.

Tort law

Tort – in common law, any instance of harmful behavior, 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.

Tort law is considered to have five purposes:

1. to compensate people for wrongs suffered;

2. to place the cost of that compensation upon those who, in justice, ought to bear it (an issue of fairness which is absent in the criminal law);

3. to prevent future losses and harms (deterrence);

4. to vindicate the one wronged;

5. to deter victims from having to make an individual retaliation for wrongs done.

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 disputes may be avoided. The things maybe tangible, such as land or a factory or 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 wealth and the objects of wealth. 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, property law reflects the politics of the society in which it is found.

Labour law

Labour law is the varied body of law applied to such matters as employment, remuneration, conditions of work, trade unions, and industrial relations. Unlike the laws of contract, tort, or property, the elements of labour law are somewhat less homogeneous. Labour law deals with the statutory requirements and collective relationships that are important in mass-production societies, the legal relationships between organized economic interests and the state, and the various rights and obligations related to some types of social services. There is a labour code or other distinctive body of labour legislation in the country. A body of law originally intended for the protection of manual workers in industrial enterprises is gradually transformed into a broader body of legal principles and standards, which have basically two function: the protection of the worker as the weaker party in the employment relationship, and the regulation of the relations between organized interest group.

Elements of labour law

The basic subject matter of labour law can be considered under nine broad heads: employment; individual employment relationships; wages and remuneration; conditions of work; health, safety, and welfare; social security; trade unions and industrial relations; the administration of labour law; and special provisions for particular occupational or other groups.

Family law

According to Black’s Law Dictionary, family law is a branch or specialty of law, also denominated “domestic relations” law, concerned with such subjects as adoption, amendment, divorce, separation, paternity, custody, support and child care. Family law shares an interest in certain social issues with other areas of law (e.g., criminal law). One of the issues that has received a substantially increased amount of attention, from various points of view, is the very difficult problem of violence within the family.

At present the dominant form of the family group consists of two spouses and the children they have produced or adopted. The law, therefore, is concerned mainly with the rights and duties of husband and wife and parent and child. The family group based on concubinage has been largely neglected by the law because such unions are often transitory and difficult to define.

Two persons might produce the economic incidents of marriage by executing appropriate contracts or settlements. On this argument, a marriage provides a technically simple way of achieving things the parties could do for themselves in finance and property matters with greater expense and complexity.

International law

International law is the body of legal rules that apply between sovereign states and such other entities as have been granted international personality. International law means public international law as distinct from private international law or the conflict of laws, which deals with the differences between the municipal laws of different countries.

International law forms a contrast to municipal law. While international law applies only between entities that can claim international personality, municipal law is the internal law of states that regulates the conduct of individuals and other legal entities within their jurisdiction.

International law should also be distinguished from quasi-international law, which is the law governing relations similar to those covered by international law but outside the pale of international law because at least one of the parties lacks international personality. Concession agreements between oil companies and sovereign states fall into this category.

Rules of international law

The basic rules of international customary law can be summarized in the following fundamental principles: sovereignty, recognition, consent, good faith, freedom of the seas, international responsibility, and self-defense.

Exercise 1 Answer the questions:

1. What kinds of law are there in jurisprudence?

2. What does constitutional law treat of?

3. Constitutions may be only written, isn’t it?

4. What kind of state is Russia?

5. What does criminal law deal with?

6. Does tax law deal with financial, and economic aspect of taxation?

7. Who are the parties of the law of contract?

8. What are the purposes of Tort Law?

9. What are the mallers of Labour Law?

10. What are the basic rules of International Law?

Exercise 2 Translate into English:

Конституционное право рассматривает функции государства, основные принципы власти и организацию государства. Каждое государство имеет свою конституцию. Конституция-это политический документ, который содержит (включает) основные законы государства, права и обязанности граждан. Конституция также может содержать статьи, ограничивающие те или иные полномочия государства, чтобы обеспечить защиту прав граждан.

Exercise 3 Match the coloums:

1. administrative law a. касающиеся существа

2. juridical b. государственное законодательство

3. national legislature c. относящийся

4. substantive d. состав, свод

5. local government f. считать, полагать

6. relating g. юридический

7. to reckon h. административное право

8. corpus i. местное правительство

Exercise 4 Find the following expressions in the translate them into Russian:

To mete out; apprehension and charging; suspected persons; the standards of conduct; civil life; police powers; an offense against the public; to make the offender give retribution; the prevention of crime.

Exercise 5 Fill in the gaps with the appropriate forms from the table:

The assessor . . . (1) find himself in disagreement with the taxpayer, . . . (2) as to the facts . . . (2) as to the manner in which the taxpayer . . . (3) a question of law or a mixed question of law and fact. The tax agent . . . (4) use his discretion as to questions of fact, and frequently a compromise . . . (5) on those questions between the taxpayer and the tax agent.

Exercise 6 make up sentences out of these words and expressions. The original version can be found in the text.

1) of two; the making; requires; or; one; more; persons; an offer; of a contract; ordinarily; the mutual assent; one of them; accepting; and; making; another.

2) deals with; transfer; property; the allocation; of wealth; and; use; the objects; law; then; and.

Exercise 7 Read the text and fill in the blanks with the words and expressions given below:

The quality; rights; property rights; by air and sea; challenge; reduce; the environment; refugees; throughout; set up; financial;

The United Nations

The United Nations is central to global efforts to solve problems which . . . humanity. Cooperating in this effort are more than 30 affiliated organizations, known together as the UN system. Day in and day out, the UN and its family of organizations work to promote respect for human . . . , protect . . . , fight disease, foster development and . . . poverty. UN agencies define the standards for safe and efficient transport . . . , help improve telecommunications and enhance consumer protection, work to ensure respect for intellectual . . . and coordinate allocation of radio frequencies. The United Nations leads the international campaigns. Against drug trafficking and terrorism. . . . the world, the UN and its agencies assist . . . and . . . programmes to clear landmines, help improve . . . of drinking water and expand food production, make loans to developing countries and help stabilize . . . markets.