Английский язык для студентов юридических вузов и факультетов. Учебник

LESSON FOUR

Konigsberg v. State Bar of California, 366 U.S. at 49. There is line-drawing as to what speech will be protected under the First Amendment and what can be proscribed or limited. Also, lines must be drawn as to where and when speech will be allowed. Moreover, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution only provides for freedom of speech against regulation by the federal or state government (e.g., a state university). A private employer (e.g., a private university) generally has no legal requirement to respect freedom of speech of its employees.

There is not one universally accepted theory of the First Amendment, but rather several different views as to why freedom of speech should be regarded as a fundamental right. The four major theories are that freedom of speech is protected to further self-governance, to aid the discovery of truth through the market place of ideas, to promote autonomy, and to foster tolerance.

Freedom of speech is crucial in a democracy because open discussions of candidates are essential for voters to make informed selections during elections. It is through speech that people can influence their government’s choice of policies. Also, public officials are held accountable through criticisms that can pave the way for their replacement. The Supreme Court has spoken of the ability to criticize government and government officials as “the central meaning of the First Amendment.”

Freedom of speech is also essential for the discovery of truth. Another argument is that it is wrong to assume that truth necessarily will trump falsehood, and we can see through history that people may be swayed by emotion rather than reason.

Another rationale often expressed for protecting freedom of speech as a fundamental right is that it is an essential aspect of personhood and autonomy. Critics of this view argue that there is no inherent reason to find speech to be a fundamental right compared with countless other activities that might be regarded as a part of autonomy or that could advance self-fulfillment.

Another explanation for protecting freedom of speech as a fundamental right is that it is integral to tolerance, which should be a basic value in our society. This claim is to say that tolerance is a desirable, if not essential, value, and that protecting unpopular speech is itself an act of tolerance. Critics argue that society need not be tolerant of the intolerance of others, such as those who advocate great harm, even genocide. Preventing such harms is claimed to be much more important than being tolerant of those who argue for them.

Notes: 1 http://courses.cs.vt.edu/lib/Freedom.of.Speech/class.html

6.Say what the abbreviation SLAPS stands for using the context.

7.Retell the text using your denotation chart.

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READING

8. Read the following questions and say if they were given coverage in your reproduction of the text.

1. What is freedom of speech? 2. Are freedom of speech and freedom of expression identical notions? 3. What test is offered to check whether the First Amendment could be applied to a case? 4. What is the origin of the First Amendment? 5. Point out reasons which make application of the First Amendment more problematic. 6. Why should freedom of speech be a fundamental right? 7. What are the views of the opponents of considering freedom of speech a fundamental right? 8. Should it include the right to lie about another person, and if not, how should we decide when that is what is happening? 9. Should free speech include the right to advocate physical harm, repression, or overthrow of the established order, and if not, who is to decide when certain types of speech fall in this category? 10. Is the essence of guarantees of freedom of speech in the RF the same as in the USA?

TEXT 6

1. Look through the text including an extract from the European Convention on Human Rights dealing with freedom of speech and point out the limitations specified in it. Be ready to explain the grounds for the introduction of these limitations.

The European Convention on Human Rights, when signed on the 4th November 1950, imbued all of the signatories’ citizens with a broad range of human rights, including Article 10, which entitled all citizens to free expression.

“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or the rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.”

Each country had to produce a law to confer these rights to their citizens. In 1998, the United Kingdom implemented the Human Rights Act, which granted the judiciary power to apply these rights to cases and

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a requirement for Parliament to check compatibility of new laws with the Convention rights. If a judge finds a law to be ‘incompatible’ with the given Convention rights, then the law must be amended to incorporate these protections.

ORAL SPEECH PRACTICE

I.Mind Your Grammar When You Speak

1.Express obligation.

Model: We must do it (because of the objective circumstances).

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mind speaking to him? tell Mr. Smith to come in?

tell me everything you know about it?

II. Conversational Formulas

Saying What Is Important, Obligatory or Desirable to Do

1. Read the following flashes of conversation.

1.

A:What do you think about inviting professors from the U.S.A. to deliver lectures on American Constitutional Law?

B:It would be a good idea.

2.

A:What do you think about joining the optional course in Tax Law?

B:I think it’s very important for us to get a better command of the subject.

3.

A:One must know law very well to become a good businessman.

B:Oh, yes. It’s vital for every businessman to study law.

4.

A:I guess I’ve got to go to Moscow on business.

B:You are right! You’ll have to go there tomorrow.

2. Work in pairs. Make up dialogues similar to those in exercise 1.

Say that it is essential for your friend to study some legal subject. Discuss its importance for the legal profession. b) Tell your friend that it is important for him to carry out some kind of work. Listen to his answer and react to it.

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c) ou are the boss of a firm. Tell your subordinate that he/she will have to go on business. Probably he/she has reasons to reject this mission. React to the answers you will get.

III. Dialogue

1. Read the dialogue.

Steven Gassman, a professor from Harvard University, is speaking to professor Alexander Sobolev about some problems of American Constitutional law.

Sobolev: Mr. Gassman, you know very well that in every state there are many problems that Constitutional law has to solve. As far as I know, one of the most controversial questions in the U.S.A. is the possibility of admission of the District of Columbia into the union as the 51st state.

Gassman: It is really one of the most difficult problems. There are many people who speak in favour of admitting the District of Columbia into the union, but there are a lot of their opponents too.

Sobolev: And what arguments do supporters of the idea put forward? Gassman: Well, there are three main arguments. The first argument is that

the District of Columbia is larger than three existing states. The second argument is that the district has a higher per-capita federal tax payment than most of the states. And the last one is that the district is prevented from spending its own money without approval from Congress.

Sobolev: The arguments are very strong. And what do the opponents say? Gassman: The first and most important argument to reject the idea is that it

runs counter to Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, known as the “district clause” of the Constitution1. Then they say that the nation’s capital can be controlled only by the Congress and not by any state. These are only examples. There are a lot of other cons.

Sobolev: I see. And what’s your opinion on the problem?

Gassman: I’m in favour of admitting the district to statehood, but I agree that the problem is too complicated. We should treat it very carefully, and probably it will take us a long time to solve it.

Note: 1 Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 The Congress shall have Power

1...

17. To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of

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the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts,

Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings; ...

2. Say about what you have learned from the dialogue.

IV. Topics for Discussion

1. Speak about the following issues.

1)Civil rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the RF.

2)The Constitution of the Russian Federation. Say what classifications of constitutions it matches.

3)Say if there are any controversial problems in the Constitutional law of the Russian Federation? What are they?

2.How does US legislation regulate freedom of speech? Read Amendment I of the US Bill of Rights and comment on it.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

3.Read the comments on the First Amendment and say if you agree with all the offered interpretations.

All together, there are six (6) rights guaranteed by the First Amendment — religion, speech, press, assembly, association, and petition. Collectively, they protect what is known as the freedom of expression (technically consisting of assembly, petition, press, and speech). Association is a derivative right from speech, assembly, and petition. Religion has more to do with the freedom of conscience than freedom of expression.

More predominant interpretations look at speech as distinct from speech plus (speech plus other conduct, commonly called demonstrations or protests), conduct, or the effects of speech. Congress has every right in the world to control these things. It’s also possible to draw upon the social contract theories of the founding fathers to understand that the First Amendment was intended to serve several important social functions: (1) educational function (to advance knowledge and potential for self-fulfillment); (2) safety valve function (to speak openly without fear of government reprisal); (3) truth-seeking function (to determine truth through debate and adversity); (4) social obligation function (to learn what is important to say). These social functions point out that the First Amendment is about protecting the public good rather than individual freedom.

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ORAL SPEECH PRACTICE

4.Do you think communication through the Internet is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment? Why? Should filters be required for everyone, or just for people below a certain age, or for no one?

Words and word-combinations you may need: filter, preselected keywords, Internet domains, lists of web addresses to block access to certain kinds of web sites, terminals, to label unfiltered terminals “adult only.”

5.Discuss some factual situations dealing with the right to free speech. May you “say” anything you want, anywhere you want to? What are the limits?

• A candidate says, “I believe my opponent lacks good moral quality.”

• License plate required by state, “Live Free or Die.”

• News article says, “Rick Roe beats his wife and children.” (But he doesn’t).

• A fraternity hangs out a Confederate flag on the Martin Luther King holiday.

• A candidate blares his message from a sound truck at 3 a.m. in a residential neighborhood.

6.The development of the Internet opened new possibilities for achieving freedom of speech using methods that do not depend on legal measures. Pseudonymity and data havens (such as Freenet) allow free speech, as the technology guarantees that material cannot be removed (censored) and the author of any information is impossible to link to a physical identity or organization. Discuss the issue of freedom of speech realized in the Net.

V.Role Play

The class are to be divided into six groups: five interest groups and the City Council. Each interest group brainstorms the reasons for their position and several situations illustrating their positions. Then they try to convince the council members to vote in favor of their position. They should also ask the council members for a commitment.

A. American Civil Liberties Union opposes using filters because it violates free speech rights.

•“Blocking software inevitably restricts access to valuable, protected speech;”

•“Parents and teachers should provide young people with guidance about accessing the Internet;”

•Filters in schools and libraries “prevent children and adults without home computers from realizing the full potential of information available on the Internet.”

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B.Netparenting Group — a group of parents supporting use of filters to protect children from harmful information.

• “Protecting our children online should be our number one goal;”

• “Adult sites are added to the web at an alarming rate;”

• “Hate groups and cults have sites and no child should ever be exposed to these radical beliefs at such a young age;”

• “When young children see bad words on the Net, they begin to think it’s okay.”

C.American Library Association — a group of librarians opposed to using filters in public libraries because this violates the commitment of libraries to promoting free speech.

• Internet communications “deserve the same level of Constitutional protection as books, magazines, newspapers, and speakers on a street corner soapbox;”

• Courts support the “importance of enabling individuals to receive speech from the entire world and to speak to the entire world;”

• “Libraries provide opportunities to many who would not otherwise have them.”

D.Freedom for Research Club — a group of high school students who oppose using filters on high school computers because this blocks access to important information for research.

• Filters prevent students from doing research on topics such as breast cancer and AIDS;

• Many students do not have Internet access at home and school and library computers are the only way they can research.

E.Parents Against Pornography — parents who support using filters to protect young children from exposure to pornography.

• Restricting access to the Internet is similar to placing limits on what can be shown on television;

• It is parents’ responsibility to teach their children about sex, and children should not be exposed to pornography on the Internet.

F.City Council Members (at least 5 students) elected by the community to make laws concerning community matters. They need to pass a decision about how to handle student and young person use of the Internet in public libraries. Each member will form his/her position as he/she listens to representatives of the other groups. Then all the City Council Members hold a brief City Council meeting in which members publicly discuss among themselves the issue of the Internet access to young people. Depending on available time, representatives of the interest groups may make comments or statement. Council members conclude their deliberations by taking a vote.

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ORAL SPEECH PRACTICE

Now step out of your roles and discuss your personal feelings regarding the use of filters. Give your observations and reactions to the City Council reception and vote (based on http://www. abanet.org/publiced/lawday/schools/lessons/ hsinternet.html).

VI. Case Study

Rights of Youth

I. Debate the opposing viewpoints presented in the cases.

I

Should Schools Have the Right to Censor Student Newspapers?

The principal of Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis County, Missouri, removed two articles from an upcoming issue of The Spectrum, the school’s student newspaper. One of the stories to which he objected described three students’ experiences with pregnancy; the other discussed the impact of divorce on students at the school. The principal said that those stories were “inappropriate, personal, sensitive, and unsuitable for student readers”. The school board later voted to support the principal’s action. Cathy Kuhlmeier and several other students sued the school district, in the United States District Court in St. Louis. They claimed that school officials had violated their 1st and 14th Amendment rights to freedom of expression.

The court held that no violation of their constitutional rights had occurred, however. It found that The Spectrum could not be considered a “public forum” — that is, not a medium of expression generally open to the public; it was, instead, “an integral part of the school’s educational function.” The students appealed that ruling, and the United States Court of Appeals reversed the lower court. The school district then carried the case to the United States Supreme Court.

Arguments for Hazelwood School District

Students’ rights are not violated if educators exercise editorial control over school-sponsored publications, especially when they do so for educational reasons. The school newspaper is not a public forum. Therefore, so long as the school remained neutral on controversial matters, the censorship was warranted.

Arguments for Cathy Kuhlmeier

The students’ constitutional rights were violated. Freedom of expression is protected by the Constitution when such expression does not disrupt class work or infringe on the rights of others. The school newspaper is a public forum and does not reflect the school’s viewpoint. Therefore, the students had the right to express their own opinions to the community. An educator’s responsibility to instill moral and political values is not meant to stifle free thought and

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expression. Students should not be forced to limit themselves to state-approved subjects or opinions.

II

Should school officials have the right to search your property?

The largest and first assault on the rights of students to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures occurred in the case of New Jersey v. T.L.O. In 1980 at Piscataway High School in Middlesex County, N.J. a few girls were caught smoking in the bathroom. After being brought to the principal’s office one of the girls, T.L.O., denied that she had been smoking. The principal then searched her purse looking for cigarettes. After finding a pack of cigarettes the search continued until the principal discovered evidence of drug dealing. This evidence was used to prosecute T.L.O. and ultimately she received a year of probation.

Supporting the applicability of the Fourth Amendment in public schools Justice White writing for the court opinion stated that, “It is now beyond dispute that “the Federal Constitution, by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by state officers.” Equally indisputable is the proposition that the Fourteenth Amendment protects the rights of students against encroachment by public school officials.” He further stated that “In carrying out searches and other disciplinary functions pursuant to such policies, school officials act as representatives of the State, not merely as surrogates for the parents, and they cannot claim the parents’ immunity from the strictures of the Fourth Amendment.”

The concurring opinion by Justices O’Connor and Powell was not quite as nice. In Powell’s words “I agree with the Court’s decision, and generally with its opinion. I would place greater emphasis, however, on the special characteristics of elementary and secondary schools that make it unnecessary to afford students the same constitutional protections granted adults and juveniles in a nonschool setting.” This is clearly a detraction from the rest of the justice’s opinions and against the nature of the amendment and previous school precedents. Ultimately the opinion of the court established a “reasonableness” approach to search and seizure rather than a “probable cause” approach as outlined in the constitution. This Supreme Court decision reinterpreted how the law applies in school with such wordings as: “reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence”, “reasonably related to the objectives of the search”, “reasonably related in scope” clearly the court has created a new way to apply this law based on no precedent or prior interpretations. The court has thrown out the probable cause clause of the Fourth Amendment and invented a murky, dangerous classification of reasonableness. Clearly this will have the effect of further limiting the rights of students in public school.

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Arguments for New Jersey

School officials act for the parents of students. Like parents, they do not need a warrant to make searches or seize evidence. School officials must have broad powers to control student conduct, including the powers of search and seizure. T.L.O.’s behavior furnished a reasonable basis for the search of her purse; therefore, the exclusionary rule does not apply.

Arguments for T.L.O.

Public school officials are employees of the State, not representatives of parents; they have no right to act as parents. School officials are public employees and so are obligated to respect every student’s rights, including his or her right to privacy. The search of T.L.O.’s purse and the seizure of its contents were unreasonable acts, and they led to her confession; therefore, the exclusionary rule does apply.

2. Read Amendment XXVII to the Constitution of the U.S.A. and the commentaries that follow.

AMENDMENT XXVII

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

Commentaries: What is now the 27th Amendment was one of 12 constitutional articles proposed in 1789 by James Madison, 10 of which became the Bill of Rights. The Amendment was ratified on May 7, 1992. Its ratification after 203 years is unique.

3. Now study the following chart and comment on it. While commenting on the chart explain why Amendment XXVII was ratified only 203 years after it was proposed. Explain why the date of ratification is considered to be May 7, 1992.

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(Source: ABA Journal Vol.78, August 1992, p.26)

4. Think and answer: Is such dilatory ratification proper? Why?

WRITING

Structuring a Review

1. The following chart can be helpful in writing a review. Use text 5 of this lesson for writing your reviews.

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LESSON FIVE

GRAMMAR: 1. Polysemy of the Syntactic Words.

2. The Infinitive (continued).

a)The Functions of the Infinitives (Revision),

b)Complexes with the Infinitives (Revision).

WORD-BUILDING: 1.Noun-forming Suffixes with the meaning of the Action or the Result of the Action (Revision).

2.The Suffix -ее (Revision).

3.The Prefix re- (Revision).

READING AND ORAL SPEECH PRACTICE: Ecology and Law. Environment and Environmental Movements.

CONVERSATIONAL FORMULAS: Starting and Controlling a Meeting. WRITING: Writing a Research Report.

Exercises

1. Translate the following sentences paying attention to the words in bold

type.

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GRAMMAR

1.By August the judges will have instituted a system, through which cases will be assigned on a rotating basis depending on a lawyer’s qualification. 2. The ABA Standards for Criminal Justice say that the selection of lawyers for specific cases should not be made by judges but by administrators of an independent program. 3. The newspaper reported that some private lawyers had built lucrative practices by taking on cases for indigent clients. They managed to do it by repeatedly billing the county for hours they never worked. 4. I couldn’t find this report for a long time. 5. In Great Britain every statute starts as a Bill. Before it becomes a law it must be approved by the Houses of Parliament and by the Queen. In practice, once both Houses of Parliament have passed the Bill the Queen’s approval is automatic, for it is accepted that the Queen shouldn’t take active political part in government. 6. Dissatisfaction with the administration of justice is as old as the law. 7. One of the functions of the law is to restrict the complete freedom of each member of the society so as to protect all the other members from his carelessness, violence or dishonesty. 8. As he walked home from court he was hoping that all his troubles were over. 9. As the old writers put it, the law lies “in the breast of the judges”. 10. When a case is cited, the name of the party bringing the case to court always comes first. Alternatively, the first name could be that of the appellant, that is a person who appeals against the decision of a lower court. 11. As soon as I return we shall discuss this matter with you. 12. As far as I know this is not the best method of settling disputes.

13.Private law concerns the relationships between individuals in a community insofar as they do not involve or concern the community as a whole.

2.Translate the sentences paying attention to the forms of the Infinitives.

1.The U.S. Constitution has been repeatedly amended to meet the changing needs of the nation. 2. One of the tasks to be performed by a lawyer is to settle disputes and controversies. 3. It was Lincoln who was the first important party leader to become Attorney General. 4. It is to be regretted that all our efforts gave no result. 5. He asked me to prepare all the documents by Monday. 6. To pass this resolution we must first discuss it with the members of the committee. 7. His duty is to do all paper work in our office. 8. I want you to submit all the documents by Tuesday. 9. He is said to have been appointed the head of the department.

10.To override this decision is impossible.

3.Translate the sentences paying attention to the complexes with the Infini-

tives.

1.A Constitution is said to be “written” when most important constitutional laws are specially enacted. 2. The U.S.A. is said to have a “written” Constitution.

3.Great Britain is said to have an “unwritten” Constitution. 4. The execution of

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the sentence is reported to be postponed. 5. The jury are supposed to represent common sense and the morality of the community. 6. The case is said to be very serious. 7. He seems to have much experience. 8. The facts are believed to have been proved. 9. Law is said to be based on concepts of order and compulsion.

1.Did you hear the judge say that? 2. I saw the police officer take the man’s documents and look through them. 3. I want you to read this article on administrative law. 4. They saw him sign the documents. 5. He wants the sitting of the committee resume tomorrow.

c) 1. It is necessary for you to go there. 2. For him to do it is rather hard.

3.We are sorry for you to leave us soon. 4. The main thing for us is to get all the facts. 5. Here are some letters for you to look through. 6. This task is too difficult for us to fulfill. 7. I left a message for him not to be late. 8. It will be difficult for you to understand the characteristic features of the English legal system if you don’t know the history of its development. 9. The main thing for us now is to learn more about the origin of English law. 10. Here are some forms for you to fill out. 11. It is important for continental lawyers to bear in mind that the English law is not only another body of rules, but also the product of a different method of approaching legal problems.

4.Fill in the blanks with the particle ‘to’ where it is necessary. Explain your

choice.

1.All governments and governmental groups, federal, state, and local must...

operate within the guidelines of the U.S. Constitution. 2. Americans stated in the first constitutional amendments, known together as the Bill of Rights, what they considered ... be the fundamental rights of any American. 3. The administration and enforcement of the laws begin not in the courts but in the offices and agencies of governments to which has been committed the authority ... enforce many statutes. This is the gist of the executive function. Yet, before enforcement may ...

begin, and before each new problem can ... be solved, public officers must...

determine the scope of the laws. Public administrators must... have the counsel of people skilled in legal interpretation and legal institutions. There is no more important stage of administration. 4. You ought ... have told him about our decision. 5. They should ... have spoken to me before preparing the draft resolution.

6.He was ... supervise the settlement of the conflict. 8. You will have ... ask them for their opinion on the possibility of solving this controversy without taking it to the court. 9. Here are some documents for you ... study. 10. We consider the results of our investigation ... be satisfactory. 11. Did you hear the chairman

... speak? 12. Have you ever known him ... deal with such complicated cases?

13.I wish him ... win his case. 14. He is said ... be a very good lawyer. 15. She seemed ... think it was the right moment... call the witnesses.

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READING

TEXT 1

1. Look through definitions of environment. Say what their main focus is on and what elements are to be considered as the most important. What is the environmental law area of protection? What definition is more applicable to the legal sphere? Formulate your own definition summarizing the essential features you have distinguished.

•The social environment of an individual is the culture that he or she was educated and/or lives in and the people and institutions with whom the person interacts1.

•The complex of physical, chemical, and biological factors in which a living organism or community exists2.

•The nongenetic conditions and circumstances that affect a person's conduct and health3.

•The sum of all external conditions affecting the life, development and survival of an organism4.

•Surroundings in which an organization operates, including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans and their interrelation5.

•The complex set of physical, geographic, biological, social, cultural and political conditions that surround an individual or organism and that ultimately determines its form and the nature of its survival6.

•The combination of all external conditions and influences relating to the life, development, and survival of all living things7.

•The combination of all the physical and other factors and conditions that influence the development or survival of an organism or group of organisms8.

•The surrounding conditions that have an impact on survival and

growth9.

Notes: 1 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment

2 eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov/Library/glossary.php3

3 www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/publicat/genechoice/ glossary.html

4 www.entrix.com/resources/glossary.aspx

5 www.c2e2.org/ems/glossary.htm

6 youthink.worldbank.org/glossary.php

7 www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/exec/sbea/education/air/lessons/airtermslesson.html

8 resweb.llu.edu/rford/docs/VGD/GSLVT/gslglossary.html

9 www.aquatext.com/list-e.htm

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2. Read the text. Pay special attention to translation of the words and wordcombinations in bold type. Explain your choices.

ECOLOGY AND THE MAIN

ISSUES STUDIED

Essentially, ecology is the branch of science that studies the distribution and abundance of living organisms, and the interactions between organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both the physical properties, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors like climate and geology, as well as other organisms that share its habitat. Ecology is usually considered a branch of biology, the general science that studies living beings. Organisms can be studied at many different levels, from proteins and nucleic acids (in biochemistry and molecular biology), to cells (in cellular biology), to individuals (in botany, zoology, and other similar disciplines), and finally at the level of populations, communities, and ecosystems, to the biosphere as a whole — these latter strata are the primary subjects of ecological inquiries. Ecology is a multi-disciplinary science. Because of its focus on the higher levels of the organization of life on earth and on the interrelations between organisms and their environment, ecology draws heavily on many other branches of science, especially with geology and geography, meteorology, pedology, chemistry, and physics contributing to ecological knowledge.

The first principle of ecology is that each living organism has an ongoing and continual relationship with every other element that makes up its environment. An ecosystem can be defined as any situation where there is interaction between organisms and their environment. The concept of an ecosystem can apply to units of variable size, such as a pond, a field, or a piece of dead wood.

Dynamics and changes in ecosystems present the main question for ecologists. Sometimes changes can bring in a favourable results. But there could be situations of ecological crises too. Generally, an ecological crisis is what occurs when the environment of life of a species or a population evolves in an unfavourable way to its survival. It may be that the environment quality degrades compared to the species’ needs, after a change of an abiotic ecological factor (for example, an increase of temperature or less significant rainfalls). It may be that the environment becomes unfavourable for the survival of a species (or population) due to an increased pressure of predation (for example overfishing). Lastly, it may be that the situation becomes unfavourable to the quality of life of the species (or the population) due to rise in the number of individuals (overpopulation).

Ecological crises may be more or less brutal (occurring between a few months to a few million years). They can also be of natural or anthropic origin. They may relate to one unique species or, to a high number of species. Lastly,

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an ecological crisis may be local (as an oil spill) or global (a rise in the sea level related to global warming).

According to its degree of endemism, a local crisis will have more or less significant consequences, from the death of many individuals to the total extinction of a species. Whatever its origin, disappearance of one or several species often will involve a rupture in the food chain, further impacting the survival of other species.

In the case of a global crisis, the consequences can be much more significant; some extinction events showed the disappearance of more than 90% of existing species at that time. However, it should be noted that the disappearance of certain species, such as the dinosaurs, by freeing an ecological niche, allowed the development and the diversification of the mammals. An ecological crisis thus paradoxically favored biodiversity. Sometimes, an ecological crisis can be a specific and reversible phenomenon at the ecosystem scale. But more generally, the crisis’ impact will last. Indeed, it rather is a connected series of events, that occur till a final point. From this stage, no return to the previous stable state is possible, and a new stable state will be set up gradually.

Lastly, if an ecological crisis can cause extinction, it can also more simply reduce the quality of life of the remaining individuals. Thus, even if the diversity of the human population is sometimes considered threatened (see in particular indigenous people), few people envision human disappearance in the short term. However, epidemic diseases, famines, impact on health of reduction of air quality, food crises, reduction of living space, accumulation of toxic or non-degradable wastes, threats on keystone species (great apes, panda, whales) are also factors influencing the well-being of people.

During the past decades, this increasing responsibility of humanity in some ecological crises has been clearly observed. Due to the increases in technology and a rapidly increasing population, humans have more influence on their own environment than any other ecosystem engineer.

Some usually quoted examples of ecological crises are:

•Permian-Triassic extinction event 250 million of years ago

•Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event 65 million years ago

•Global warming related to the greenhouse effect. Warming could involve flooding of the Asian deltas, multiplication of extreme weather phenomena and changes in the nature and quantity of the food resources

•Ozone layer hole issue.

•Deforestation and desertification, with disappearance of many species.

•The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986 caused the death of many people and animals from cancer, and caused mutations in a large number of

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