Grammar Revision

Ex.15 Translate the sentences with «there is (are, was, were, will be)».

e.g. There are over 450,000 lawyers in the USA. – В США более 450000 юристов.

1. There is a field of law which is called «jurisprudence».

2. There are rules and regulations, statutes, procedures and orders which are included in law.

3. There have been a lot of attempts to define law.

4. There are numerous areas of law practice in which lawyers specialize.

5. There will be many situations not so clearly defined.

6. There are three distinct jurisdictions in the UK.

7. In the middle ages, there was a commercial and trade law that governed the trade and commercial transactions in Europe.

8. However, today there are signs that civil and common law are converging (converge, v –сходиться, приближаться).

9. In Russia there are codes with rules and regulations.

10. In the UK there is no Constitution but there are Acts of Parliament.

11. In the USA there is the Constitution of the USA.

12. There is no sense in what you are saying.

13. There was a general election that year.

14. There have been two telephone calls today.

Ex.16 Translate the sentences. Mind theEmphatic Construction «it is … that (who, which) and «it is not until … that».

e.g. It is the judge who passes the punishment. – Именно судья выносит приговор.

1. It will be next year that I will graduate from the University.

2. It was not until 1661 that the first official bank notes were made in Sweden.

3. It was in 1941 that the Great Patriotic war began.

4. It was Lomonosov who founded the first Russian university.

5. It’s the Government that adopts new laws.

6. It is the advocate who drafts the papers and argues the case.

See also: Supplementary exercises (1 – 5, 7, 8)

Ex.17 Answer the questions on Text A.

1. What is law?

2. What does the word «jurisprudence» mean?

3. What are the areas of law practice in which lawyers specialize?

4. Why is law a social mediator of relations between people?

5. The main role of law is to resolve disputes, isn’t it?

Ex. 18 Develop the idea of each sentence using the text.

1. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of institutions.

2. Law shapes politics, economics and society.

3. Law is a social mediator of relations between people.

Ex.19 Agree or disagree with the statements. Use the following phrases: to tell the truth; I think; that’s why; besides; it’s not correct, etc.

1. Law doesn’t play any role in our society.

2. In all societies relations between people are regulated by customs.

3. Every country tries to provide laws which help its people to live safely and comfortably.

4. The main role of law is to maintain order.

Ex. 20 Make a list of arguments for and against the following statements

1) Laws are not for ordinary people, they are for lawyers.

2) However hard people try, laws are always insufficient.

For Against

1)

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2)

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Ex.21 Prove the saying «The rule of law is better than the rule of any individual»

Ex.22 Read Text B. In each paragraph of the text find a sentence which best introduces or summarizes the information. Do the tasks below the text.

a)------ The two main traditions of modern European law are the codified legal systems of most of continental Europe, and the English tradition based on case law.

As nationalism grew in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, lex mercatoria (лат. торговое право) was incorporated into countries’ local law under new civil codes. Of these, the French Napoleonic Code became the most influential. As opposed to English common law, which consists of massive tomes of case law, codes in small books are easy to export and for judges to apply. However, today there are signs that civil and common law are converging. European Union law is codified in treaties, but develops through the precedent laid down by the European Court of Justice.

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b)------ The United States legal system developed primarily out of the English common law system. Some concepts which originate in Spanish law, such as the prior appropriation doctrine and community property, still persist in some U.S. states, particularly those which were part of the Mexican Cession in 1848.

Under the doctrine of federalism, each state has its own separate court system, and the ability to legislate within areas not reserved to the federal government.

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c)------ Roman law was lost through the Dark Ages, but in the 12^th century AD scholars in the University of Bologna discovered the texts and were the first to use them to interpret their own laws. Medieval European legal scholars began researching

the Roman law and they began using its concepts and prepared the way for the partial resurrection of Roman law as the modern civil law in a large part of the world. After the Norman conquest of England which introduced Norman and Islamic legal concepts into medieval England, the English king’s powerful judges developed a body of precedent which became the common law.

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d)------ The eastern Asia legal tradition reflects a blend of secular and religious influences. Japan was the first country to begin modernizing its legal system along western lines, by importing bits of the French, but mostly the German Civil Code.

Similarly, traditional Chinese law gave way to westernization towards the final years of Ch’ing dynasty in the form of six private law codes based mainly on the Japanese model of German law. Today, because of rapid industrialization China has been reforming. A new contract code in 1999 represented a turn away from administrative domination. Furthermore, after negotiations lasting fifteen years, in 2001 China joined the World Trade Organization.

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e)------ One of the major legal systems developed during the Middle Ages was Islamic law and jurisprudence, now the third most common legal system after the civil law and common law systems.

Islamic law is like common law in that it «is not a written law» based on the Quran but the provisions of Islamic law are to be sought first and foremost in the teaching of the authoritative jurists». Thus, Islamic law may «be called a lawyer’s law if common law is a judge’s law».

A number of important legal institutions were developed by Islamic jurists during the classical period of Islamic law and jurisprudence, known as the Islamic Golden Age, dated from the 7^th to 13^th centuries. One such institution was the Hawala, an early informal system, which is mentioned in texts of Islamic jurisprudence as early as the 8^th century.

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f)------ The history of law is closely connected to the development of civilization. Ancient Egyptian law (about 3000 BC) contained a civil code that was broken into 12 books. By the 22^nd century BC an ancient Sumerian ruler formulated the first law code, consisting of casuistic statements («if… then…»). About 1760 BC King Hammurabi developed Babylonian law, by codifying and inscribing it in stone.

Ancient Athens had no legal science, and Ancient Greek had no word for «law» as an abstract concept. Ancient Greek law contained major constitutional innovations in the development of democracy.

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Ex.22.1 Read the paragraphs and arrange them in their logical order. Give a title to the text. Retell the text using the topical sesntences.

Ex.23 Translate the text into Russian in writing. Use a dictionary.

Text C

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