II. Read and translate the following sentences. Compare the use of these nouns in italics when they are countable and uncountable, comment on the use of articles or on their absence.

1. a) Adoption is so widely recognized that it can be characterized as an almost worldwide institution with historical roots traceable to antiquity.; b) Continuity of the male line, which could be important for political, religious, or economic considerations, was the main goal of most adoptions.

2. a) In Anglo-American law a promise to make a gift is not a binding contract, because it lacks the essential element of consideration (the requirement that to be valid a contract must involve a bargained-for exchange).; b) The doctrine that a consideration is necessary if a contract is to be enforceable has a number of functions in the law of contracts.; c) Environmental protection requires that due consideration be given to the potential consequences of environmentally fateful decisions.; d) Various jurisdictions (e.g., the United States and the EU) and business organizations (e.g., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) have integrated environmental considerations into their decision-making processes through environmental-impact-assessment mandates and other provisions.

3. a) One of the most important functions of economic planning is to achieve consistency among different economic objectives.; b) Herbert Wechsler is an American lawyer and legal scholar (Dec. 4, 1909, New York, N.Y. - April 26, 2000, New York), as director of the American Law Institute, he created a model penal code, completed in 1962, that helped state legislatures achieve greater consistency in their criminal laws.; c) Nicotine is one of the few liquid alkaloids. In its pure state it is a colourless, odourless liquid with an oily consistency, but when exposed to light or air, it acquires a brown colour and gives off a strong odour of tobacco.

4. a) Thus, a defendant from one state or a foreign country cannot be required to defend a suit in another state unless the defendant has had enough contacts with that state not to offend “traditional notions of fairness and substantial justice.”; b) The most dramatic change in the history of many non-Western societies has been their relatively recent contact with the West and with Western ideas. The fact that many non-Western societies have, as they have come in contact with the West, changed their property systems to make them more like those of the West does not indicate that such a change was inevitable, or even functional.

5. a) In this most basic sense, courts constitute an essential element in society's machinery for keeping peace.; b) Proceedings are always held in open court, unless the magistrates sit as “examining justices,” whereby they carry out inquiries preliminary to trial in serious matters that may require committal of the accused to a higher court for trial.; c) The manorial court, in feudal law, court through which a lord exercised jurisdiction over his tenants.; d) The Court of Chancery was essentially a court of equity.; e) The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established as a court of last resort to prosecute the most heinous offenses in cases where national courts fail to act.; f) Offenders are detected, brought to court, tried, convicted, and punished by professionals especially trained for their particular functions.

6. a) Murder is a recognized crime in all civilized societies.; b) In general it may be said that primitive peoples, more often than civilized peoples, handle infractions of social norms as torts (private wrongs) rather than as crimes.; c) The tremendous growth in crime in the United States during Prohibition (1920–33) led to the formation of a national organization.; d) Violent crime in the U.S. increased slightly in 1992, but the overall level of crime reported to law-enforcement agencies declined 3% compared with 1991.; e) Thus, a sudden increase in the reported incidence of a crime from one year to the next may merely show that the police have taken more interest in that crime and devoted more resources to its investigation.

7. a) In the House of Commons each bill presented is given three readings, each of which provides the opportunity and the occasion for a debate of the principle involved or of specific clauses.; b) Because of limited time, formal debate does not allow thorough exploration of complex problems; rather, it is conceived as an exercise that may serve to sharpen forensic abilities and, like a chess match, provide intellectual entertainment for nonparticipants.; c) Part of the complexity of the issue is that the debate over same-sex marriage is really two different debates. The first is a normative debate about what relationships to value or even to sanctify. The second is a debate about administration - that is, which relationships ought to have legal consequences.

8. a) At the beginning of Peter's reign, Russia was backward by comparison with the countries of western Europe. This backwardness inhibited foreign policy and even put Russia's national independence in danger.; b) Demographic trends thus helped to implant in the German population a feeling of both momentary strength and looming danger.; c) The rules against marrying close relatives are sometimes said to be directed against the dangers of inbreeding, but this does not explain the prohibition against unions between persons who are related only by marriage.; d) Compulsory arbitration has been favoured in disputes in the transportation industry, which may involve great public inconvenience, and in disputes in the public-utilities sector when an immediate danger to public health and safety might occur.; e) The Criminal Procedure Law adopted in 1979 originally provided for all death sentences to be approved by the Supreme People's Court, China's highest judicial organ, but in 1981 this general requirement was removed in cases of murder, rape, robbery, and a number of other crimes, such as breaching dikes, that involved danger to the public.; f) But the administrative authority vested in local police forces to control the use of public parks and roads and, if there is a danger of violence, to disperse crowds can be misused to justify interference in many public gatherings that are innocent in their purpose.

9. a) Preventive detention is also used when the release of the accused is felt to be detrimental to the state's ability to carry out its investigation.; b) Perhaps the most significant and dramatic human rights development of the year was the arrest - in the United Kingdom for purposes of extradition to Spain - of former Chilean president Pinochet, who was accused of having orchestrated, while head of state, extensive human rights violations aimed at crushing political opposition to his regime through executions, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and detentions, including the regular infliction of torture on detainees.; c) In June U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to China, where a policy of detention of dissidents continued, was notable for its low-key approach to human rights issues.

10. a) Until the late 18th century, prisons were used mainly for the confinement of debtors who could not meet their obligations, of accused persons waiting to be tried, and of convicts who were waiting for their sentences - either death or banishment - to be put into effect.; b) Release was also conditional upon the continued good conduct of the offender, who could be returned to prison if necessary.; c) Moreover, the controlled environment of a prison offers opportunities for the rehabilitation of criminals through counseling services, education, vocational training, and so on.; d) These arguments assume that the isolation of the offender is not outweighed by the possibility of his becoming more criminal while in prison, and that the social and economic costs of isolating the criminal from the rest of society are less than those incurred if he had been left free.

11. a) Punishment may take forms varying from capital punishment, flogging, and mutilation of the body to imprisonment, fines, and even deferred sentences that come into operation only if an offense is repeated within a specified time.; b) On the one hand, the retributive principle itself has been very largely superseded by the protective and the reformative; on the other, punishments involving bodily pain have become objectionable to the general sense of society.; c) A general deterrent is a punishment the object of which is to deter other persons from following the example of the offender, by fear of the same consequences that have been inflicted on him.

12. a) Status may be ascribed - that is, assigned to individuals at birth without reference to any innate abilities - or achieved, requiring special qualities and gained through competition and individual effort.; b) Ascribed status is typically based on sex, age, race, family relationships, or birth, while achieved status may be based on education, occupation, marital status, accomplishments, or other factors.; c) Jus cogens (Latin: “compelling law”) rules are peremptory norms that cannot be deviated from by states; they possess a higher status than jus dispositivum (Latin: “law subject to the dispensation of the parties”), or normal international rules, and can be altered only by subsequent norms of the same status.

13. a) Mentally disabled offenders require hospitalization and psychiatric treatment.; b) Patients from throughout the country often travel to the capital for treatment.; c) Environmental law is principles, policies, directives, and regulations enacted and enforced by local, national, or international entities to regulate human treatment of the nonhuman world.; d) The so-called skull lichen (Parmelia saxatilis) is a common variety that grows in flat gray-brown rosettes (5 to 10 centimetres across). According to folk superstition, it was believed to be an effective treatment for epilepsy if found growing on an old skull, especially that of an executed criminal. 14. a) Fueling questions regarding the possibility that innocent persons have been executed in the U.S. was a study published in 2002 by James Liebman and colleagues at Columbia University, New York City, that found that the overall rate of prejudicial error - an error so serious that it would normally require a new trial - in the American capital punishment system was 68%.; b) In countries with a civil- rather than common-law tradition, the jury, where found, is used only for criminal trials.; c) Pending trial, all countries maintain a presumption of the accused's innocence. He must be allowed full facilities for preparing his defense, and there are normally safeguards provided to protect him from being held unjustifiably in arrest before trial.

15. a) A declaratory judgment simply declares or defines rights to be observed or wrongs to be eschewed by a plaintiff, a defendant, or both, or expresses the court's determination of a contested question of law, without ordering that anything be done.; b) Although a declaratory judgment must deal with a real as opposed to a hypothetical dispute, it is not necessary for an actual wrong, giving rise either to criminal liability or to a claim for civil damages, to have been done or even threatened or contemplated.; c) Accordingly, in its draft articles finally adopted in 2001, the International Law Commission dispensed with this politically divisive approach but retained the idea of a more serious form of international wrong.; d) Until recently the common-law system did not correspond to the realities of the situation in Britain because, prior to the Crown Proceedings Act, 1947, it was not possible to sue ministers and their departments in tort; government ministers in Britain are considered ministers of the crown, and an ancient legal doctrine holds that “the king can do no wrong.”