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1. Complete each blank with the right word: Law, (1)............ of official rules and regulations, generally found in constitutions, legislation, judicial opinions, and the (2)........., that is used to govern a society and to control the behaviour of its members. In the most (3).............. sense, there are two kinds of law: natural law and positive law. Natural law has (4)............. recognized since the ancient world to be a general body of rules of right conduct and justice common to all mankind. This concept grew from the observation of the (5)............. of the laws of nature and their uniformity. Positive law, on the other hand, consists of regulations formulated by the heads of a country or society. In many cases, natural laws have been written (6)............ positive laws by governments. The prohibition (7)............ killing, for example, is common to virtually all of mankind, and most nations have enacted laws against it. The nature and functions of law have varied throughout history. In modern societies, some authorized body such as a legislature or a court (8)........... the law. It is backed by the (9)............ power of the state, which enforces the law by means of appropriate penalties or remedies. Law (10)................. a variety of functions. Laws against crimes, for example, help to maintain a peaceful, orderly, (11)............... stable society. Courts contribute to social stability by (12)........... disputes in a civilized fashion. Property and contract laws facilitate business (13)............... and private planning. Laws limiting the powers of government help to provide some degree of freedom that would not otherwise be possible. Law has also been used (14)........... a mechanism for social change; for instance, at various times laws have been (15)........... to inhibit social discrimination and to improve the quality of individual life in matters of health, education, and welfare. 1. a. organism 2.a. like 3. a. general 4. a. be 5. a. operating 6.a. in 7.a. of 8.a. provides 9.a. coercitive 10.a. deserves 11.a. relative 12.a. resolving 13.a. action 14.a. as 15.a. resumed b. forum b. same b. generic b. been b. operation b. inside b. against b. provide b. coercive b. illustrate b. approximate b. helping b. environment b. for b. made c. institution c. similar c. generous c. being c. function c. into c. for c. make c. coersive c. serves c. relatively c. providing c. status c. against c. proposed d. body d. such d. large d. was d. functioning d. within d. about d. makes d. obligatory d. applies d. approximately d. closing d. activity d. such d. passed
2. Read and translate the following text: Natural Law Law is not completely a matter of human enactment; it also includes natural law. The best-known version of this view, that God's law is supreme, has had considerable influence in many Western societies. The civil rights movement, for example, was at least partially inspired by the belief in natural law. Such a belief seems implicit in the view that law should serve to promote human dignity, as for instance by the enforcement of equal rights for all.
11. The sentences below all contain certain words or phrases that are incorrect in the context and should be replaced by a different word or phrase. Locate these words and phrases and substitute the correct terminology. Note that there is only one correct alternative in each sentence. 1) There were three defendants in court, all of who were charged with serious offences. 2) The company, that was based in Birmingham, became insolvent due to the managing directors fraudulent dealings. 3) The accused claimed that he did not break into the house he said that the door was nonlocked, and he merely pushed it open and wandered in. 4) The judge is entitled to send you to prison for this offence, and it is quite likely that she can do so. 5) In accordance with the witness, the accused was not in the area when the crime was committed. 6) The defendant was shown to have lied to almost everyone specially his lawyer. 7) This legal principle derives solely from common law, and is therefore unstatutory. 7
Retribution - Criminals ought to suffer in some way. This is the most widely seen goal. Criminals have taken improper advantage, or inflicted unfair detriment, upon others and consequently, the criminal law will put criminals at some unpleasant disadvantage to "balance the scales." People submit to the law to receive the right not to be murdered and if people contravene these laws, they surrender the rights granted to them by the law. Thus, one who murders may be murdered himself. A related theory includes the idea of "righting the balance." Deterrence - Individual deterrence is aimed toward the specific offender. The aim is to impose a sufficient penalty to discourage the offender from criminal behavior. General deterrence aims at society at large. By imposing a penalty on those who commit offences, other individuals are discouraged from committing those offences. Incapacitation - Designed simply to keep criminals away from society so that the public is protected from their misconduct. This is often achieved through prison sentences today. The death penalty or banishment have served the same purpose. Rehabilitation - Aims at transforming an offender into a valuable member of society. Its primary goal is to prevent further offence by convincing the offender that their conduct was wrong. Restitution - This is a victim-oriented theory of punishment. The goal is to repair, through state authority, any hurt inflicted on the victim by the offender. For example, one who embezzles will be required to repay the amount improperly acquired. Restitution is commonly combined with other main goals of criminal justice and is closely related to concepts in the civil law.
20. Derive verbs from the following nouns: rehabilitation, deterrence, restitution, penalty, banishment, offence. 21. Derive nouns from the following verbs: prevent, convince, relate, inflict, repay, serve, embezzle, commit, transform, require, acquire, discourage, submit, contravene. 22. Employment law 1.1 Overview of employment law Employment law governs the relations between the employer and the employee and the conditions under which work occurs. In the UK and the US, labour relations are not as heavily regulated as in, for example, most continental European countries. Therefore, the relationship between the employer and the employee is governed to a great extent by the terms of the employment contract which the parties have agreed. However, the following principles are generally accepted in most spheres of employment: - Discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy or membership of a trade union is not permitted (although there are sometimes certain exceptions to some of these). - All employees have certain statutory rights, including entitlement to at least the national minimum wage (if applicable), equal opportunities, itemised pay statements, equal pay for like work, maternity rights and benefits, notice of termination of employment, a healthy and safe working environment, statutory sick pay, time off (vacation, public duties, maternity/paternity leave, trade union activities etc), protected rights on transfer of a business, written statement of terms and conditions of employment. 12
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Romania's 1991 constitution (1) Romania a democracy and (2) economy, in which human dignity, civic rights and freedoms, the unhindered development of (3) personality, justice, and political pluralism are supreme and guaranteed values. The constitution directs the state to implement free trade, (4) the principle of competition, and provide a favorable (5) 15
1 Legal Notes
1.1 What is crime?
Here are two definitions of crime used in English law: An act (or sometimes a failure to act) that is deemed by statute or by the common law to be a public wrong and is therefore punishable by the state in criminal proceedings. (Oxford Dictionary of Law) It is not simply anything which the legislature chooses to call a crime. It is not simply anti-social conduct which public officers are given a responsibility to suppress. It is not simply any conduct to which a legislature chooses to attach a "criminal" penalty. It is conduct which, if duly shown to have taken Forum Legal English by lawyers for lawyers 5 place, will incur a formal and solemn pronouncement of the moral condemnation of the community. Smith and Hogan, Criminal Law (Butterworths 1988) pp. 22-24
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1.4 Voluntariness
It is an essential element of an crime that the defendant controlled his or her actions that these actions were willed. In certain cases, however, the defence of automatism can be raised. This refers to unconscious involuntary conduct caused by some external factor. Examples include sleepwalking, hypnotic trance or the acts of a diabetic suffering a hypoglycaemic episode. It is not a defence if this state is self-induced (e.g. by taking excessive drink or drugs). Duress is also a complete defence the essence of duress is that the defendant's actions were involuntary because his or her will to act was overborne by threats of immediate death or serious injury. The defence of provocation is a mitigatory defence which only applies in cases of murder. Provocation refers to the situation where the defendant alleges that he or she totally lost control as a response to another's provocative conduct. If accepted by the court, provocation is sufficient to convert what would otherwise have been murder into the lesser offence of manslaughter. In the case of R v Duffy (1949), Devlin J stated that, provocation is some act, or series of acts, done by the dead man to the accused, which would cause in any reasonable person, and actually causes in the accused, a sudden and temporary loss of self-control, rendering the accused so subject to passion as to make him or her for the moment not master of his mind.
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2 Language Exercises
2.1 Criminal law terminology
Read the passage below and then do the exercises based on it. When a crime is (1)________, the police will (2)______ the (3)_______ as soon as possible. Following the arrest the (4)________ must be read to the suspect straightaway. Then the suspect must be conveyed to the police station for questioning. The suspect is entitled to (5) _________ by a lawyer during the interview. He or she may be held for up to 24 hours in the first instance, and this period may only be extended on application to the magistrates court. At the expiration of this period the suspect must either be formally (7)________ with an offence or (8)_______. If charged, the suspect may either be
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2.3 Vocabulary
Read the following extract from a reference book on criminal law. Choose the best word or phrase to fill each gap from A, B, C or D below. In Callow v Tillstone (1900) a negligent (1) _____________ of a (2) ___________ by a veterinary surgeon had (3) _________ in a butcher selling meat which was (4) _______ for human consumption. The butcher had (5) _______ the veterinary surgeons certificate and would have had no reason to believe that he was in breach of the law. He was convicted on the basis that the (6) _________ was one of strict liability. In other words, his knowledge of the condition of the meat and his (7)____________ about its sale were held to be (8) __________ he had in fact sold meat which was unfit for human consumption. The veterinary surgeon was charged with aiding and abetting the offence. To add to the butchers misery, the veterinary surgeon who had certified that the meat was (9) ________ had his conviction for aiding and abetting quashed because aiding and abetting required knowledge of the facts and an intention to encourage. Although he had been negligent in his examination of the animal it could not be (10) ___________ that he knew the meat was unsound. (1) a) examination b) study c) check d) registration (2) a) piece of meat b) corpse c) cadaver d) carcass (3) a) resulted b) ended c) eventuated d) concluded (4) a) bad b) unfit c) unsuitable d) dangerous (5) a) depended on b) trusted in c) relied on d) faith in (6) a) crime
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1. Complete the following with: panel predicted announced estate jury critical Forewoman opportunity witnesses curb intercom contended reached testimony form After deliberating for less than four hours, the jury announced that it has (1)a verdict. The quick verdict surprised many legal analysts, who had (2).....................it would take anywhere from two days to two months. When Judge Lance Ito called the (3)........................of 10 women and two men back into court, he said: "You buzzed three times and indicated that after receiving the verdict (4).......................that you have reached a verdict in this case. Is that correct, Madam (5)..............................?" "Yes," replied the 51-year-old black woman who was elected by the jurors to lead the (6)....................... Earlier in the day, jurors asked to re-hear (7)......................from the limousine driver who drove Simpson to the airport shortly after the murders. The request for a readback of Allan Park's testimony suggested the jurors were looking at the (8)...........................issue of whether Simpson had enough time to kill Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Park, who picked Simpson up for a trip to the airport, was considered one of the most important time-line (9)................................., joining houseguest Brian "Kato" Kaelin, the last person known to see Simpson before the murders. Their testimony created a 78-minute window of (10)..........................for Simpson to commit the murders. Simpson (11)......................he was at home preparing for a trip to Chicago, but he presented no alibi testimony. Park said he arrived at Simpson's house at 10:22 pm the night of the murders and didn't see Simpson's Bronco parked outside when he was searching the (12).........................for street numbers. Park testified that at 10:55 pm he saw a large, shadowy figure of an AfricanAmerican person at the front door of Simpson's Rockingham (13)........................... Moments later, Simpson answered the (14).......................that Park had been sounding for 15 minutes.. On October 3, the verdict is (15)............................... not guilty. (http://www.courttv.com/trials/ojsimpson/weekly/24.html) 2. Translate: A day after the prosecution rested its case, Judge Lance Ito dealt with several important evidentiary matters. During arguments over the formal introduction into evidence of crime scene photographs, the prosecution revealed that Nicole Brown Simpson may have armed herself with a butcher knife after hearing suspicious noises outside her condominium moments before the killings. After the defense objected to the introduction of pictures showing the knife lying on a kitchen counter, prosecutor Marcia Clark argued that a fearful Nicole Brown Simpson possibly retrieved the knife and only placed it on the counter upon Ronald Goldman's arrival.
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