Legal English. Practicing core skills = Английский язык для юристов профессиональные навыки. Учебное пособие по английскому языку

ние ребенка, оставленного судом у одного из супругов, другим супругом, развод, ежедневная забота о ребенке, физическая опека, присуждать юридическую опеку, воспитание ребенка.

Before you watch the video fragment, remember the following words and word combinations: to be specialized in, to deal exclusively with family relations, to focus on, to be split in, child’s custody, child or spouse support, visitation, decision-making power.

Watch the video fragment on the following site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqxaQlA_Ecw&feature=related

Answer the following questions:

1.What is Kelly Chang?

2.What is she specialized in?

3.What does Kelly’s legal practice focus on?

4.What parts is custody split in?

5.What is physical custody?

6.What does legal custody relate to?

Criminal Law

Watch and listen to Sgt. Jim McTiernan: “How to spot a drug driver and test for drugs at the roadside” https://yandex.ru/video/preview/2119395873991186034

The text of the video fragment: Sgt Jim McTiernan Metropolitan Police

The signs that are a giveaway are, as you are driving along behind someone you will see them driving unnecessarily slowly, or in the opposite case driving too fast, late breaking, deviating from the lane, simple things like not putting your lights on at night etc, turning wide on corners. Under the influence of drugs you lose your ability to multi-

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task and driving is a multi-task business, so a drug driver can usually only concentrate on one thing, for example driving in a lane he will forget about his speed, he will forget to put his lights on, he will forget to stop at red traffic lights sometimes. We use a roadside sobriety test to test a drug driver for impairment but the primary thing we look for is in the eyes. Most drugs will affect your central nervous system and your eyes, which are a part of your central nervous system, will show the effects of those drugs. There’s nothing you can do about it, you can’t hide it, it will show in your eyes.We have this device here which we use to measure the size of someone’s pupils. If you understand that some drugs will dilate your pupils, on the opposite side some drugs will cause your pupils to restrict down to pinpoints, and this is easily detected with this simple measuring device. And we also do a number of psychophysical tests at the roadside such as getting a person to estimate the passage of time, to walk in a line, to touch their nose with their finger and to stand with one foot off the ground. Fairly simple tests, quite easy to do when your sober, but under the influence of drugs, very difficult to perform.

Give the Russian for: to drive unnecessarily slowly, to put one’s lights on, a multi-task business, to stop at red traffic lights, a roadside sobriety test, to affect smth, to measure the size of someone’s pupils.

Give the English for: раскрытие тайны, ехать слишком быстро, под влиянием наркотиков, остановиться на красный свет, воздействовать на центральную нервную систему, тест на алкоголь, сузить зрачки, измерительный прибор, пройти по линии, стоять на одной ноге.

Answer the following questions:

1.What are the signs that show that the driver is under the influence of drugs?

2.What do police use to test a drug driver?

3.What are the psychophysical tests, which police use to detect drivers?

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Tort Law

Study the following legal notions:

Fault – 1.An aspect of smth that is wrong or not perfect; a mistake or flaw. 2. It is a responsibility for a mistake or an offence

Liability – 1.An amount owed. 2.Alegal duty or obligation. Strictliability– 1. (in criminal law) Liability for a crime that is im-

posed without the necessity of providing mens rea with respect to one or more of the elements of the crime. The are few crimes of strict liability at common law but such crimes are often created by statute, particularly to control or regulate daily activities; examples include offences relating to the production and marketing of food and offences relating to road traffic. The usual penalty for crimes of strict liability is a fine. 2. (in tort) Liability for a wrong that is imposed without the claimant having to prove that the defendant was at fault. Strict liability is exceptional in the law of tort, but is imposed for torts involving dangerous animals, dangerous things, conversion, defamation, product liability.

Read and translate the following text:

The Difference between Strict Liability and Fault Liability

Strict liability. Suppose I make a mess on my property and present you with the bill for cleaning it up. Absent some prior agreement, this would seem rather odd. It is my mess, after all, not yours. Now suppose that instead of making a mess on my property and presenting you with the bill, I simply move the mess to your property and walk away, claiming that the mess is your problem. If it was inappropriate of me to present you with the bill for the mess I made on my property, it hardly seems that I have improved matters by placing my mess on your property. I have a duty to clean up my messes and the existence of this duty does not appear to depend on how hard I have tried not to make a mess in the first place. This is the underlying intuition expressed by the rule of strict liability.

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Fault liability. Unless we stay home all day, we are each bound to maketheoccasionalmessin another’s life.Thisbeingso,it would be unreasonable of me to demand that you never make any kind of mess in my life. What I can reasonably demand is that you take my interests into account and moderate your behavior accordingly. In particular, I can reasonably demand that you take precautions not to injure me – that you avoid being careless with respect to my interests and, all the more so, that you not injure me intentionally. This is the underlying intuition expressed by the rule of fault liability.

People sometimes misunderstand the nature of fault liability because they equate strict liability in tort with strict liability in the criminal law. Strict liability in the criminal law is a form of responsibility without culpability. If you are strictly liable for a criminal offense, you are punishable for the offense even if your conduct is not morally blameworthy. The standard way to express this is to say that strict liability in criminal law is not defeasible by excuse. If we conceived similarly of strict liability in tort, we would then understand fault liability, incorrectly, as liability that is defeasible by excuse, in other words, as liability (only) for one’s culpable conduct. But you can be at fault in tort even if you are morally faultless, that is, even if your conduct is not morally blameworthy. Under a regime of fault liability, you are liable for injuries you cause while failing to comport yourself as a reasonable person of ordinary prudence. It won’t get you off the hook that you are not a reasonable person of ordinary prudence. Nor will it matter that your failure to comport yourself as a reasonable person of ordinary prudence is a failure for which you are utterly blameless. Fault liability is simply not defeasible by excuse.

Strict liability is not defeasible by excuse, either. Under neither regime does your liability for a loss depend on your degree of culpability. What distinguishes the two regimes is this: you can avoid fault liability if you comport yourself as a reasonable person of ordinary prudence – in other words, if you act reasonably or justifiably – whereas you remain subject to strict liability even if you act impeccably. Thus, fault liability alone can be undermined by justification.

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Some find it helpful to distinguish between strict liability and fault liability in terms of the content of the underlying legal duty. In the case of blasting – an activity traditionally governed by strict liability – the blaster has a duty not-to-injure-by-blasting. In the case of driving – an activity traditionally governed by fault liability – the driver has a duty not-to-injure-by-driving-faultily. No matter how much care he takes, the blaster fails to discharge his duty whenever he injures someone. In contrast, the driver fails to discharge his duty only when he injures someone negligently, recklessly, or intentionally.

Only if we first get clear on the content of a legal duty can we determine an activity’s true cost. Suppose a rancher’s cows trample a farmer’s corn, causing the farmer a financial loss. To what activity should we ascribe this cost? Is it a cost of ranching or a cost of farming? We cannot answer this question just by determining whether crop damage is something that ranching causes. We must first determine whether the rancher owes the farmer a duty. If the rancher has a duty to prevent his cows from trampling the farmer’s corn, then the resultant damage is a cost of ranching. But if the rancher has no such duty – if it is the farmer’s responsibility to protect his corn crop, say, by building a fence – then, other things being equal, the resultant damage is not a cost of ranching but a cost of farming. Commercial Law.

Give the Russian for: strict liability, to claim, prior agreement, fault liability, inappropriate, to be bound, to take precautions, to injure smbintentionally,aformofresponsibilitywithoutculpability,tobe defeasible by excuse, a reasonable person of ordinary prudence.

Give the English for: собственность, представить счет за что-ли- бо, учитывать чьи-либо интересы, неправильно понимать, виновность, быть ответственным за вред (телесные повреждения), действовать разумно или оправданно.

Translate the following sentences into English basing on the text:

1.Если Вы строго отвечаете за уголовное преступление, Вас подвергают наказанию за преступление, даже если Ваше поведение морально безупречно.

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2.Вы можете избежать ответственности за вину, если Вы ведете себя как разумный человек, другими словами, если Вы ведете себя разумно или оправданно.

3.Люди иногда неверно понимают природу ответственности за вину, потому что они смешивают строгую ответственность в деликтном праве со строгой ответственностью в уголовном праве.

Give the summary of the text.

Commercial Law

Endorsements

An endorsement is the process of signing the back of a paper, thereby imparting the rights that the signer had in the paper to another person. The number of times an instrument may be endorsed is unlimited. There is no requirement that the word “order” be embodied in the endorsement. Four principal kinds of endorsements exist: special, blank, restrictive, and qualified.

An endorsement that clearly indicates the individual to whom the instrument is payable is a special endorsement.

A paper containing a blank endorsement is one that has the signature of the payee but no specific endorsee is designated. A check that is made payable to the order of X is endorsed in the blank when X signs it. Once endorsed, it becomes bearer paper and is negotiable by anyone who physically holds it. A blank endorsement is changed into a special endorsement if certain words are written above the endorsee’s signature, such as “pay to the order of Y.”

A qualified endorsement is one wherein liability is disclaimed by the endorser through inclusion of a phrase preceding his or her signature. Ordinarily, an unqualified endorser’s liability may be either secondary, whereby the endorser is bound to pay if the individual expected to pay defaults and certain conditions are met, or by warranty, by which the endorser incurs liability upon alteration ofthe instrument.

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To disclaim secondary liability, the endorser can include the words “without recourse,” thereby relieving himself or herself of any responsibility to pay it.

Attorneys who are the recipients of checks drawn in settlement of the claims of their clients commonly sign their clients’checks with qualified endorsements. This type of check is ordinarily made payable to the lawyer and client jointly. It is generally endorsed by the lawyer without recourse and given to the client.The attorney then is not liable if the client does not receive the money promised by the terms of the check.

A restrictive indorsement is conditional and attempts to prevent subsequent transfer of the document. The language of the endorsement indicates that the instrument is intended for limited use, such as “for deposit only,” or specifies that the paper is meant for the benefit of the endorser or another individual, as in “Pay X in trust for Y.” The condition imposed by a restrictive indorsement must be satisfied before payment can be properly made.

However, an endorsement that tries to prohibit further transfer of an instrument will not succeed. If a check says “Pay X only,” it is still completely negotiable upon its endorsement by X.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/commercial-paper

Give the Russian for: an endorsement, signing the back of a paper, requirement, signature of the payee, liability, alteration of the instrument, settlement of the claims, the terms of the check, to prohibit, benefit.

Give the English for: делать передаточную надпись, бланковый индоссамент (бланковая передаточная надпись), ограниченный индоссамент, именная передаточная надпись (специальное индоссирование), лицо, расписавшееся на обороте, акцессорная ответственность (субсидиарная ответственность), подписывать чеки клиентов.

Answer the following questions:

1.What is the general idea of the text?

2.What is an endorsement?

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3.What principal kinds of an endorsement do you know? Give the notion of each kind.

Translate the family words: to endorse – endorsement – endorser – endorsee; liable – liability; to pay – payment – payable – paid;

to condition – conditional – conditionally – conditioned.

Give the summary of the text.

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TYPESCRIPTS

Video Fragment 1 (Common Law)

Judges and Magistrates Career Search.

Judge: All rise!

Narrator: One of the foundations of our country is our judicial system. Judges and magistrates are charged with making sure the system operates in accord with the law. Most of us think of the judge as the person who keeps order in a courtroom by occasionally banging a gavel.

Judge: Quiet in the courtroom.

Narrator: But judges play a far more important role. In overseeing legal proceedings, they act like referees, ensuring that the rules are followed. They also issue decisions and hand down sentences. Depending on their position, judges and magistrates might specialize in a particular area, such as family, civil or criminal law.

Sometimes called justices of the peace, magistrates can perform wedding ceremonies, and handle cases dealing with traffic violations, misdemeanors, small claim cases and pre-trial hearings.

They generally have at least a bachelor’s degree. Judges are appointed or elected, and almost always have law degrees, and experience in the kind of courtroom they will oversee.

Withoutjudgesandmagistrateswewouldprobablyloseoneofour most cherished rights – the right to a fair trial.

Video Fragment 2 (Family Law)

Main characters: Jenkens – a judge

Doctor Diane Lord – a foster mother of Lengsten Wild, a powerful person in town

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Mr. Ray Montez – an Uncle of Lengsten Wild

Lengsten Wild – girl in her teens, a foster-daughter of Doctor Lord.

Mr. Montez: You know, my Sister Linda and I haven’t seen for several years. I regret more than you can imagine that I lost her. I see so much of Linda in my niece Lengsten. And I seek await to help repair the damage of the past. You know one thing that I learnt for the years I spent away from my family: it is not just a duty, but a privilege. It is a privilege to preserve the family connections.

I greatly appreciative doctor Lord for giving my niece a good home since she lost her mother and father. But I can also give Lengsten a good home. She will be well educated. And I can offer to her something no one else on the Earth can offer: the stories, the memories to keep her mother, to keep her grandparents close to her. I can provide Lengsten with the family in the most true sense of the word.

Judge: Thank you, Mr. Montez. Now I would like to hear from Ms. Wild’s foster mother, doctor Lord.

Doctor Lord: In this very court-room I was awarded legal guardianship of LengstenWild.While I’ve never tried to replace her biological mother, it was my honour to become a second mother to her.And she became like one of my daughters.

I decided I want to adopt her, to make it legal, permanent. I discussed it with Lenssten and she said that she thought the same way. And while I cannot provide with memories of the past, as can Mr. Montes, I have brought her into a very happy and loving household with cousins andAunts.And we have created a lot of wonderful memories and will continue to do so in the future.

So, I’m sorry, I just don’t… I don’t … I don’t get it: Mr. Montez is offering memories of Lengsten’s mother – his sister, a woman from whom he was estranged for twenty years. So Lengsten may not have my blood, but she has my heart. And that is one that nobody has the right to break.

Judge: Doctor Lord, Mr. Montez, thank you both for your statements and the information you provided. It is nothing else…

Ms. Lengsten Wild: May I say something since we are talking about my life and my future.

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