Text 12

1. Read and translate the text.

CRIMINAL LAW

Criminal law is concerned with conduct which the State considers should be punished, whereas civil law is concerned with private rights. A crime may be regarded as a public wrong; but conduct which is harmful to the public is not necessarily criminal. Criminal law is a system of legal rules approved by higher organs of state power and defining the general principles of criminal responsibility, individual types of crimes and the punishment applied to criminals.

The task of criminal law is to protect the social and state system, existing law and order against criminal encroachments. The state combats crime and other antisocial acts above all by persuasion and by extensive educational work. Combating crime, criminal law helps to strengthen the state and maintain law and order.

Criminal laws, like all other laws of the state, are obligatory for all citizens. Criminal laws determine general principles of combating crime as well as the corpus delicti of crimes and the punishment persons who have committed these crimes. Only the highest organ of state power may enact criminal laws. No other organ has the right to approve or amend criminal laws. Criminal law usually takes the form of a criminal code, which consists of a general and a special part. The General Part determines the general principles of criminal responsibility for each crime. It defines the grounds for criminal responsibility, the scope of criminal law, the general (main) elements of a crime, the responsibility for a completed or incompleted crime; it sets forth the purposes of punishment, lists penalties, establishes the procedure of their application, release from punishment and so on. The Special Part defines the types of crime and prescribes the penalties.

2. Answer the questions.

1. What is criminal law?

2. What is the task of criminal law?

3. What are the ways of combating crime?

4. What organs may enact laws?

5. What form does criminal law take?

3. Find in the text the equivalents of the following words and expressions.

Бороться с преступностью, посягательство, состав преступления, обязательный, совершать преступление, применяемое наказание, внести поправку в закон, соучастие, выдвигать, освобождение.

IV. Write down sentences with the following idioms.

1.To judge by deeds and not by words. О человеке судят по делам, а не по словам.

2.A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit. Худой мир лучше доброй ссоры.

Text 13

1. Read and translate the text.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: FOR AND AGAINST

The ultimate penalty is death (capital punishment). It is carried out by hanging, electrocution, gassing or lethal injection, beheading, or shooting.

The earliest historical records contain evidence of capital punishment. The Bible prescribed death as the penalty for more than 30 different crimes, ranging from murder to fornication. The Draconian Code of ancient Greece imposed capital punishment for every offence. Although today most countries still have a death penalty, some countries have abolished it. Some countries retain capital punishment only for exceptional crimes such as wartime offences. In other words, almost half the countries of the world have ceased to use the death penalty.

Supporters of capital punishment believe that death is a just punishment for certain serious crimes. Many also believe that it deters others from committing such crimes. Opponents argue that execution is cruel and uncivilized. Opponents argue that there is no evidence that it deters people from committing murder any more than imprisonment does. A further argument is that, should a mistake be made, it is too late to rectify it once the execution has taken place.

In addition, while in some countries young people are not sent to prison but to special juvenile detention centers, in Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, Barbados and the United States children under 18 have been legally put to death.

The issue is now the focus of great debate. The debate also involves the question of what punishment is for. Is the main aim to deter? Is it revenge or retribution? Is it to keep criminals out of society? Or is it to reform or rehabilitate them?

II. Answer the questions.

1. Is capital punishment human?

2. Does it influence the crime rate?

3. How many countries abolished capital punishment?

4. What are the reasons for capital punishment?

5. Are you for or against it?

III. Find in the text the equivalents of the following words and expressions.

Кодекс Драконта, смертельная инъекция, совершать преступление, удерживать от совершения преступления, отменить казнь, перевоспитывать преступников, оправдать невинного, привести приговор в исполнение.

4. Write down sentences with the following idioms.

1.The great fish eat up the small. Закон джунглей: сильные пожирают слабых.

2.Good laws are the nerves of a state. Хорошие законы- основа государства.