CIVIL PROCEEDINGS

Understanding the English legal system must start with the distinction between civil and criminal proceedings. Civil and criminal proceedings require different courts and procedures, although some judges sit in both civil and criminal courts. The distinction between civil and criminal proceedings consists mainly in the legal consequences that follow a particular act. The role of the civil law and civil proceedings is to determine the rights and obligations of individuals themselves, as well as in their relations with the others. Such civil acts could be: the determination of rights arising under a contract, the rights regarding property and succession, the obligations of paying damages for torts, like negligence, nuisance or defamation, questions of status, such as divorce, adoption and the custody of children. These rights belong to the area of private law, as they are of private nature; but there are also rights that belong to the public law, like questions of taxation, or questions of planning and compulsory purchase, which are of public nature. In a civil proceeding, the person who begins the proceeding is the plaintiff and he sues or brings an action against a defendant. The plaintiff will be seeking a remedy, usually in the form of damages (money compensation), but possibly also in the form of an injunction (an order prohibiting the defendant from committing or continuing to commit a wrongful act). Most civil proceedings are heard by a judge sitting alone; in defamation cases, which are very rarel the judge will be helped by a jury in civil proceedings. The judge delivers a judgement after hearing the action. The terminology is not the same in all the civil proceedings. For instance, in divorce proceedings, the petitioner, who asks for the marriage to be dissolved, partitions for a decree against the respondent. If it is certain that the marriage has broken down irretrievably because of the respondent's adultery, the person with whom the respondent is alleged to have committed adultery must usually join the proceedings. This party is called co-respondent. In civil proceedings, the plaintiff usually must prove the facts on which the claim is based. This means that the plaintiff has the burden of proof, which in the civil cases is said to be on the balance of probabilities. In other words, the plaintiff must satisfy the judge through admissible evidence, which is more reliable than his statements which he pretends to be true. BASIC VOCABULARY. IDIOMS procedure = 1. act or manner of proceeding in any action or process; conduct; 2. a particular course or mode of action; 3. mode of conducting legal parliamentary, or other business, especially litigation and judicial proceedings obligation = 1. an argument enforceable by law, originally applied to promises under seal; 2. a document containing such an agreement; 3. a bond containing a penolty with a condition annexed for payment of money, performance of covenance etc.; 4. any bond, note, bilt certificate, or the like, as of a government or a corporation, serving os evidence of indebtedness; 5. something by which a person is bound to do certaih things, and which arises out of a sense of duty or results from custom, low etc.; succession = the descent or transmission of a throne, dignity, estate, or the like; nuisance = something offensive or annoying the individuals or to the community, especially in violation of their legal rights; defamation = false or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another as by slander, libel, calumny compulsory = required without exception; mandatory; obligatory;

SYNONYMS fundamental = essential consequence = effect obligation = (1) contract; (2) = responsibility compulsory = obligatory ANTONYMOUS fundamental - secondary negligence - care private - public compulsory - voluntary 1. Answer the questions: 1. Is there any difference between civil and criminal proceedings? 2. Which are the aims of the civil law and civil proceedings? 3. Who is the person who begins the proceedings and what does he do? 4. Which is the schedule of a civil proceeding? 5. What about divorce? 6. What does the burden of proof imply? 2. Complete the blank spaces with the missing words: a) Different ......... and ......... are used for civil and criminal proceedings. b) Civil law and proceedings aim to determine the ......... and ......... of individuals as well as between each other. c) Questions of taxation or questions concerning planning or compulsory purchase are rights that belong to ......... low. d) Most civil proceedings are heard by a ......... sitting alone. e) In civil proceedings, the plaintiff usually has the ......... of proof. 3. What do you mean by: -proceeding -procedure -case -burden of proof -litigation 4. Which of the following statements are false and which are true? Correct the false ones: a) The distinction between civil and criminal proceedings is of no importance in understanding English legal system. b) The questions of taxation are of private law nature. c) In most criminal proceedings the person beginning the proceedings is the plaintiff. d) Most civil proceedings are heard by a jury of 12 persons. e) The plaintiff must satisfy the judge through admissible evidence, which is nof as reliable as his statements that he pretends to be true.

RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE The English system of civil procedure is based upon the adversary principle: a series of statements of fact are put forward by one party to be attacked by the opposing party. The judge acts principally as umpire or referee and leaves it to the parties to put the case before him. The rules of civil procedure which govern the handling of cases are technical, complex and detailed. They are designed to regulate the conduct of the parties and their advocates in an adversary trial. They can be found in large volumes entitled The supreme Court Practice (known among lawyers as 'The White Book') and The County Court Practice (known among lawyers as 'The Green Book'). This mass of rules really has three objectives. The first objective is to ensure that the facts on which a claim is based are accurately found and appropriately arranged so that the issues between the parties can be identified. The second is to ensure that the correct and appropriate rule of law is found and applied. The third objective is to ensure that the remedy or remedies prescribed by that rule of law can adequately be enforced. It is not necessary to dwell on the detail of the rules of procedure, since a broad outline of the process in action in contract and tort will serve for our enquiry. Whether the rules actually achieve their objectives remains to be assessed, but there has been a succession of calls over the last 30 years for the redrafting of the rules in order to make High Court practice and procedure quicker, simpler and cheaper. Few of their recommendations have been implemented. The recommendations of the Civil Justice Review pick up some of these recommendations and their implementation will mark the start of a new era in the processing of civil disputes. Adapted from "The Administration of Justice", by Robin C. White

TRUTH -THE PRINCIPLE OF THE JUDICIAL PLEADING Truth is the accurate reflection of the objective reality in thinking, by comparing what exists with what really happens. There are two kinds of truth: the objective and the relative truth. The objective truth reflects the existing reality, which is independent from the human consciousness. The criterion and the source of truth are the socialhistorical experience of humankind, which makes the process of finding out the truth a continuous and unlimited in time one. The relative truth is the reflection of reality, which is just, but approximate. For example, the scientific fact is a relative truth. Using the relative truth, the human consciousness permanently aims to the absolute truth. The absolute truth includes all the relative truth in its progressive and infinite historical sequence. Any relative truth contains elements of absolute truth. Along the history, all the conceptions, systems and schools were appreciated through their attitude towards the truth. Truth is the key to any lawsuit or juridical proceeding. At the basis of all the branches of the studies of law lies the principle of absolute truth, especially in the procesuallaw, where complete concordance between the facts regarding the cause and the conclusion of the criminal lawsuit is demanded. A person who has to give evidence in a trial will have to swear on oath that he will tell the truth and nothing but the truth. He is required not to make a false statement or pass the truth over in silence. What we mean by telling the truth is that a person says a true sentence and not a false one. As Aristotle said, "a true statement is the one by which you say that it is what it is and that it is not what it is not". In the Middle Ages, philosophers sustained that truth is the accord between object and intellect. Legally speaking, we have the right to sustain that our opinions are true, but we must be able to motivate them, seriously and firmly. BASIC VOCABULARY. IDIOMS accurate = careful in exact conformity with a standard or with a truth really = in fact, in reality, positively reality = property of being real objective = belonging not to the consciousness or the perceiving or thinking subject, but to what is presented to this, external to the mind, real relative = pertinent, relevant, related to the subject absolute = complete, pure, mere; real, unconditionat self-existent and conceivable without relation to other things truth = quality or state of being true or accurate; honest; sincere; loyal; accurately shaped; adjusted irrespective of = not taking into account; without reference to motive = what induces a person to act consciousness = totality of a person's thoughts and feelings criterion = principle, standard a thing is judged by humankind = mankind, human species source = origin, places where things come from permanent = intended to lost indefinitely opinion = judgement or belief not founded on certainty or proof; view held as probable conception = thing conceived, idea lie = intentional false statement conclusion = final result

statement = stating, expression in words intellect= faculty of knowing and reasoning SYNONYMS to assert = to declare accurate = precise really = indeed absolute = perfect relative = pertinent criterion = principle humankind = mankind source = origin permanent = lasting ANTONYMS truth - lie accurate - inaccurate reality - fiction respective - irrespective false - true 1. Answer the questions: 1.What is truth? 2. What kinds of truth did you read about? 3. What does objective truth deal with? 4. What about the relative one? 5. What is the absolute truth? 6. What are the words a person has to soy before giving evidence? 7. What is a true statement in Aristotle's way of thinking? 8. How did philosophers in the Middle Ages define the truth? 2. Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words: a ) Truth demands the complete ......... of facts. b) The relative truth is the ........., but ......... reflection of reality. c) To say a truth means to say a ......... sentence, not a false one. d) The scientific fact is a ......... truth. e) The process of finding out truth is ......... and ......... in time. f) Before giving evidence in a trial, the witness must say the .................., the whole ......... and nothing but the ......... . 3. Make sentences using the antonyms of the following words: limited, silence, truel serious, permanent, relative 4. Use the following expressions in sentences:

- to give evidence - to tell the truth - to pass something over in silence - judidal proceedings 5. How many meanings can you find to these words? -sentence -firm 6. Write a paragraph composition using the following: lawyer, pleading, justice court, to lie at the basis, truth, accord, fact, exact, regarding, reality CHARTISM AND THE NEW POOR LAW The history of the chartist movement (1838 -1848) is really an illustration of this. It is usual to point out that, when payment of MP's was authorised in 1911, all the six political points of the Charter had been in principle conceded, except the not very sensible proposal for general elections to be held annually. But William Lovett and Feargus O'Connor, the two principal leaders -both of whom were sent to prison during the period of agitation -and the bulk of their followers wanted something more than manhood suffrage, vote by ballot and other changes in electoral procedure. They aimed at getting a different kind of MP, the sort of member who had first experience of sufferings of the being completed in 1911, the Chartist demands in this sense only began to be considered after 1906, the year in which Members of Parliament of a new social type first appear in significant numbers. The social reform which the Chartists advocated, were often vaguely described as impracticable and inconsistent with each other. But they were certainly united in their outcry against the new poor relief system of 1834. Joseph Naylor Stephens, a Wesleyan minister turned into a Chartist agitator called it "this damnable law", which violates all the laws of God". Yet the law which bore more hardly upon the lives of the workers was left unaltered throughout the Queen's reign. The Poor law of 1834 stopped the Speenhamland systems of rates in aid of the wages by trying to abolish outdoor relief. If the poor needed help, they were let to come to the workhouse for it. If they came to the workhouse, they found that the help they got -food and shelter for themselves and their families -was administered in such a strict, mean and humiliating fashion that people would rather die than become paupers. If they would not become paupers, than they must either find a job, however hard and poorly paid, or emigrate, or die. In spite of Dickens' "Oliver Twist" and in spite of Chartist agitation, the grim new workhouses remained the typical buildings of Victorian England. Outdoor relief was never wholly abolished, especially in the case of the aged, and after about 1870 the principle of abolition survived chiefly in rural areas. Some relieving officers and workhouse masters administered the law in a kindlier spirit than others, and the workhouse infirmary, where the sick law, gradually took on more the character of a hospital than a place of punishment. But the fear of the workhouse remained one of the biggest factors in creating and maintaining the habits of hard work, thrift and adaptability. Whole families would move about the country, on foot if necessary, in search of employment -which made what the books call our Labour Force so efficient an instrument for creating wealth.

The supervision of the Poor Law, at first entrusted the commissioners, was the main task of a new government department set up in 1871. This was the local Government Board, having as its other work the control of the town councils, which had been reformed and put on an entirely new basis in 1835. Local government was a second point at which the law affected the life of the workers, especially in the new industrial towns, for the law intervened to restrict within narrow limits the improvements which a council could provide for the town it served. Adapted from "British Life and Civilization", by Livia Deac, Adrian Nicolescu