Language practice and comprehension check.

TASK I a) Look up the words from ACTIVE VOCABULARY:

Continuity - connectedness, unbrokenness, uninterruptedness.

To enshrine - to put or keep in a holy place (a shrine).

Relevant - 1) directly connected with the subject; 2) having practical value or importance.

To turn upon - to attack someone or criticize very strongly.

Accession - a coming into possession of an office or right.

To expunge - to rub out or remove (a word, name, etc.) from a list, book etc.

Stalemate - a situation in which neither side in a quarrel can get an advantage.

To assert - to make a claim to; defend (a right or claim) by forceful action.

b) Insert the missing words from the list above:

1. In each case the … statute will prescribe the procedure which must be followed when making the delegated legislation.

2. One of the main purposes of the constitution is to maintain political stability and … in the country.

3. “The state is responsible,” … the feminists, “for the breakdown of family life…”

4. The universities” autonomy is … in their individual charters.

5. They demanded to … the clause from the contract.

6. People all over the world hoped that nuclear … would lead to disarmament.

TASK II

a) Explain the meanings of the word combinations from the text:

Overriding power, key powers, ultimate legal power, legal framework, lawful heir, military dictatorship

b) Use: legal power, overriding power, lawful heir, legal power, dictatorship in the following sentences:

1. The English courts retain an … to refuse to enforce (or even to recognize) provisions of foreign law that are against English public policy, foreign penal or revenue laws, or laws creating discriminatory disabilities or status.

2. Monarchy is a government in which a single person rules, with powers varying from absolute … to the merely ceremonial.

3. Judicial jurisdiction is the … and authority of a court to make a decision that binds the parties to any matter properly brought before it.

4. Domestic authority is the … to use nondeadly force when reasonably necessary to protect a person for whom one is responsible.

5. … is a person who succeeds to the rights and occupies the place of, or is entitled to succeed to the estate of, a decedent, whether by an act of the decedent or by operation of law.

TASK III Use the text to make sentences with the following verb forms:

…dates from…

… are traced to …

… claimed to be…

…replaced…

…appointed…

…was prohibited from…

…was required…

…was dismantled…

…was created…

TASK IV a) Match the derivatives and their meanings:

Constitute, institute, substitute, restitution, constituency

1. An area having separate representation in the House of Commons.

2. A formal word for begin or start.

3. To make up, to compose.

4. The return or restoration of some specific thing or condition.

5. To put a person or thing in place of another.

b) Use the above words in the following sentences:

1) … is a body of substantive law in which liability is based not on tort or contract but on the defendant's unjust enrichment or the set of remedies associated with that body of law, in which the measure of recovery is usually based not on the

plaintiff's loss, but on the defendant's gain.

2) Title is legal evidence of a person's ownership rights in property or an instrument (such as a deed) that … such evidence.

3) Instructed delegate is bound to vote according to a …'s expressed wishes.

4) …-ed contract is a contract made between parties to an earlier contract so that the new one takes the place of and discharges the earlier one.

5) Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 is a protectionist statute that raised tariff rates on most articles imported into the U.S., and provoked U.S. trading partners to … comparable tariff increases.

TASK V Select the political and historical events mentioned in the text.

TASK VI a) Compare the definitions of constitution borrowed from

1) Oxford Dictionary of Law and 2) Black’s Law Dictionary:

1. constitution n. The rules and practices that determine the composition and functions of the organs of central and local government in a state and regulate the relationship between the individual and the state. Most states have a written constitution, one of the fundamental provisions of which is that it can itself be amended only in accordance with a special procedure. The constitution of the UK is largely unwritten. It consists partly of statutes, for the amendment of which by subsequent statutes no special procedure is required, but also, to a very significant extent, of common law rules and constitutional conventions.

2. constitution. (18c) 1. The fundamental and organic law of a nation or state that establishes the institutions and apparatus of government, defines the scope of governmental sovereign powers, and guarantees individual civil rights and civil liberties. 2. The written instrument embodying this fundamental law, together with any formal amendments.

b) How is constitution defined in your legal system?

TASK VII Comment on the following quotation:

The power to tax involves the power to destroy. (John Marshall)

TASK VIII Explain how the Revolution of 1688 determined the relationship between the Crown and Parliament.

TASK IX Contribute to the subject and prepare a talk about: