ENGLISH-IN-LAW. Textbook
.pdf
2nd edition
УДК 802/809.1 ББК 81.2 Англ.-923+67
CONTRIBUTORS:
Natalya Berezhneva, Elena Borisoglebskaya, Asya Goloborodko,
Svetlana Paschenko, Tatiana Patenkova, Dina Karpova,
Natalya Korysheva, Anna Sazhina, Tatiana Tarasova
ENGLISH-IN-LAW: Textbook. 2nd edition / Ed. by T.I. Tarasova. — Moscow: Moscow University Press, 2014. — 232 p.
ISBN 978-5-19-010972-6
ENGLISH-IN-LAW is a text-book presenting interesting material with a major focus on legal English. It combines incentive ideas from the field of law with the strongly task-based approach. It can be used both in class and for self-study by students of law, philosophy, sociology, political sciences, etc. Its assignments and tasks help learners of English to acquire and develop useful skills of reading, writing, speaking as well as communicative and cross-cultural competences.
Key words: law, aims of law, morality, self-interest, lawyers, positive law, international law, common law, statute law, public law, parliament, government, state.
УДК 802/809.1 ББК 81.2 Англ.-923+67
ISBN 978-5-19-010972-6 |
© Moscow University Press, 2014 |
FOREWORD
Nowadays the communication and interaction in law between different nations is inevitable and legal language teaching is part and parcel of this interaction.
ENGLISH-IN-LAW is a new course presenting interesting material with a new focus on legal English. It combines incentive ideas from the field of law with the strongly task-based approach.
ENGLISH-IN-LAW:
•inspires students by introducing rich and varied texts and challenging tasks
•uses authentic texts to illustrate and practice legal language
•provides terms and notions to each text and the full glossary with definitions of key legal terms used in the course
•presents and practises vocabulary, word building, synonyms and antonyms, collocations, set expressions, idioms and metaphors
•develops the key skills of reading, writing, and speaking
•reviews some aspects of grammar, activates vocabulary
An important feature of these legal English materials is that they meet the wide range of students’ needs, including different fields of interest and specialisation, help to discover a new culture of law and language.
ENGLISH-IN-LAW includes 21 topic-based units including Aims of Law, Law, Morality and Self-interest, The Rule of Law, Development of Positive Law, Common Law and Statute Law, The State, State Law and International Law, The American System of Law, Public Law, Branches of Law, Lawyers, Law-making and Executive Bodies.
The work on each text starts with explanation of legal terms and historical notions, detailed information on significant legal documents and historic events. The distinction between confusing legal terms and concepts is brought into prominence.
3
Each unit contains vocabulary study and practice, essential grammar review and provides a balanced selection of group, pair and individual work.
There are a significant number of discussion activities in the course: each unit offers controversial statements in the text, famous quotations, or current hot issues. The main purpose of such discussions is to stimulate use of active vocabulary in oral speech, to help students get confident in expressing their opinions and to acquire communicative competence. Throughout the course students are encouraged to use their own experience and knowledge of law to maximise involvement and learning in class. The course provides a basis for more advanced study of English law and language.
The things that lawyers know about Are property and land.
But why the leaves are on the trees; And why the waves disturb the seas; Why honey is the food of bees; Why horses have such tender knees;
Law, say the gardeners, is the sun, Law is the one
All gardeners obey To-morrow, yesterday, to-day. Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold; The grandchildren put out a treble tongue, Law is the senses of the young.
Law, says the priest with a priestly look, Expounding to an unpriestly people, Law is the words in my priestly book, Law is my pulpit and my steeple.
Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose, Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I've told you before, Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more, Law is The Law.
Yet law-abiding scholars write: Law is neither wrong nor right, Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times, Law is the clothes men wear Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good morning and Good night. Others say, Law is our Fate;
Others say, Law is our State; Others say, others say
Law is no more, Law has gone away.
Why winters come when rivers freeze; Why faith is more than what one sees; And hope survives the worst disease; And charity is more than these,
They do not understand.
H. Pepler, The Devil’s Dream
And always the loud angry crowd, Very angry and very loud,
Law is We,
And always the soft idiot softly Me. If we, dear, know we know no more Than they about the Law,
If I no more than you
Know what we should and should not do Except that all agree
Gladly or miserably That the Law is
And that all know this
If therefore thinking it absurd
To identify Law with some other word, Unlike so many men
I cannot say Law is again,
No more than they can we suppress The universal wish to guess
Or slip out of our own position Into an unconcerned condition. Although I can at least confine Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyway: Like love I say.
Like love we don't know where or why, Like love we can't compel or fly,
Like love we often weep, Like love we seldom keep.
WH Auden, Law, Like Love
5
Пустая страница
Text 1
WHAT IS LAW?
Human beings have always lived together under rules of one kind or another. It does not matter where in the world; it does not matter in what age, whether the society in which they lived was a basic or a complex one by our present-day standards — they have always as a matter of necessity lived by rules.
These rules are likely to be influenced by nature and the natural environment wherever people live, and the simple natural instinct which everyone has for survival. They may be influenced by religion or pagan beliefs, and they will cater for the ideas of right and wrong which are instinctive, or have been developed to suit the society in which they live.
Let us think about ourselves. If we form a club or group, even in an informal setting, what is the first thing we will do? Almost certainly, we will choose a leader or organiser and make up some rules. At first we may not be satisfied with them. As time goes by we will change and adapt them to suit our needs, and any new ideas we may have, but we will not be able to manage without any rules at all. Even criminals who plan a crime will work to a set of rules of their own making, however unpleasant they and their crime may be.
If we think about our family, or our school, past or present, we will know that there are things which we have to do, and which we are not allowed to do. Some of these rules will be very obvious and we would expect to find them in any similar situation. Some may apply only in our lives. They may be sensible — or they may seem to us or outsiders to be strange, even foolish. We may well question these rules, but we will be told that there is no point in doing so:
7
this is how things have always been and how they are — the ‘Law is The Law’!
Very often rules will be in force because our parents, or others, are handing down a way of living and working which has been tried and tested, and which has suited them and possibly their ancestors, over many years. Whether they are sensible or silly, useful or useless, serious or fun, we still live by them, because it has become the custom to do so. Gradually, over a period of time, customs may change to adapt to new times, just like the rules of a sport.
What kinds of rules do we have in our country? Our rules may conveniently be divided into three simple types:
•There are the basic common-sense rules of everyday life. We must have rules which forbid us doing things which almost everyone regards as plainly and morally wrong.
•We have rules which govern the way in which we should behave in our particular community, and which we have learned from experience.
•We have rules which have gradually developed over many years, because it has become the custom to do things in a particular way, and that custom has become a settled and accepted way of behaviour.
Now if any of these rules and customs are so important that we can be punished or made to make amends for not obeying them, we tend to call them ‘laws’. People do sometimes talk of ‘laws’ when referring to the rules by which they live their own lives: “This is the law in our family”. “This is the law in our school”. “These are the laws of cricket or football.” We know what may happen if we break these ‘laws’ — there will likely be punishment or, in the case of sport, penalties of one kind or another.
In our country there are certain rules which are there to be obeyed by everyone — by us, by our family, by everyone who is old enough to behave responsibly. As we shall see, many of these rules have grown out of custom — the customs of town and country, which have developed over the centuries and which have been adopted and adapted by the judges sitting in their courts. Many more rules have been laid down for us all by Parliament.
If any of us break these rules we may be brought before a court of law. We may be punished by the court, or ordered to make amendments in some way. All the rules which could result in the courts taking action against us if we break them are called laws.
8
TASK 1 Underline the best synonyms for the following words from the text:
1)rule – custom, regulation, statute, moral
2)basic – underlying, primary, fundamental, primitive
3)complex – composite, heterogeneous, varied, elaborate, sophisticated
4)nature – type, character, variety, world, personality
5)pagan – ethnic, gentile, infidel, profane
6)cater – humour, spoil, indulge, supply
7)setting – scene, scenery, set
8)suit – conform, adjust, fit, become
9)manage – run, handle, operate, keep, direct
TASK 2 Match the verbs on the left with their definitions on the right:
1) |
make up |
а) |
to consider |
2) |
go by |
b) |
to put to test or trial |
3) |
hand down |
c) |
pass |
4)question d) doubt, dispute
5)regard e) transmit in succession (as from father to son)
6)lay down f) constitute, compose
7) try |
g) assert or command dogmatically |
TASK 3 Match the types of rules on the left with their examples on the right:
1) Basic common-sense |
a) A good example of the influence of |
rules of everyday life |
custom is our mercantile law, which |
|
deals with the way people trade with |
|
one another. Mercantile customs are |
|
of importance not merely in a domes- |
|
tic setting. Trade between countries |
|
throughout the world is based upon |
|
customs, and international trading |
|
practices have been accepted as part of |
|
our own commercial law. |
9
2) Rules which we have learned from experience
3) Customs
b)We must not kill or rob. This will seem very obvious and we would expect to find the same rules in countries throughout the world. Nevertheless we must have rules in our own country which make killing and robbing crimes, and provide a system of punishment for those who commit them — and other crimes.
c)It is the rule that the driver and passengers in a car must wear safety belts. This is the law in many countries but of course it was not always so. We did not have cars until the early 1900s. We did not have any motorways until the 1960s. Failing to wear a seat belt became an offence quite recently, simply because there were so many road accidents, and we learned from experience that in most road accidents seat belts provide protection from injury. Without a rule making people use them, they might not bother to do so.
TASK 4 a) Study the following information:
The verb ‘to have’ is one of the most common verbs in the English language. It functions in various ways:
a)‘to have’ as a main verb – implies the meaning of possession:
I have a job.
In this form it doesn’t take the continuous form (for that you have to use the auxiliary verb ‘be’): Are you having a good time?
b)‘to have’ as an auxiliary verb – is used to help other verbs create the perfect tense – auxiliary verb have [+ past participle]:
Rules have gradually developed over years.
c)In addition to the two forms, there is another use for ‘have’ as a modal verb, ‘have to’ or ‘have got to’: Do you have to leave early? Have you got to leave early?
10