ENGLISH-IN-LAW. Textbook

b) Comment on the use of the verb ‘to have’ in the following sentences:

1)Human beings have always lived together under rules of one kind or another.

2)What does Economics have to do with Law?

3)Rules have been developed to suit the society in which people live.

4)As time goes by we will change and adapt them to suit our needs, and any new ideas we may have.

5)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.

6)We may well question these rules, but we will be told that there is no point in doing so: this is how things have always been.

7)Police don’t have to knock, justices say.

8)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.

9)We did not have any motorways until the 1960s.

10)Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.

11)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.

12)Every sport has to have its own set of rules.

13)Election law requires equal air time for candidates. If enforced, the law could mean that more than 100 episodes of “Law & Order” might have to be removed from the airwaves during Thompson’s run — or other candidates could demand equal air time.

14)We’ve got to, as lawyers who are problem solvers and who really want to use the law the right way, have got to look at the whole picture of human life and make a judgment on how to proceed in order to enforce the law.

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TASK 5 a) Study the following information:

to adopt v 1) to choose or take as one’s own; make one’s (with object) own by selection or assent: to adopt a nickname

2)to take and rear (the child of other parents) as one’s own child, specifically by a formal legal act.

3)to take or receive into any kind of new relationship: to adopt a person as a protégé.

4)to select as a basic or required textbook or series of textbooks in a course: We adopted a new course of “English-in-Law”.

5)to vote to accept: The House adopted the report

6)to accept or act in accordance with (a plan, principle, etc.).

adopt out v. phr to place (a child) for adoption: The institution may keep a child or adopt it out.

to adapt v to make suitable to requirements or conditions; (with object) adjust or modify fittingly: They adapted themselves to the change quickly. He adapted the novel for

movies.

(without object) to adjust oneself to different conditions, environment, etc.: to adapt easily to all circumstances.

Related forms: adaptedness, n

Synonyms: fit, accommodate, suit, reconcile, conform; modify, rework, convert.

b)Open the brackets to choose one appropriate word:

1)In another key resolution, the Parties (adopted / adapted guidelines on protection from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

2)The Caradon Local Plan was (adopted / adapted) in December 1999 and sets out the Council’s policies for land use in the Caradon area.

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3)Many countries have introduced new laws and (adopted / adapted) law enforcement procedures over the last four years to improve their capacity to deal with terrorism.

4)Angelina Jolie has formally asked a Santa Monica court to change her newly (adopted / adapted) son’s name to Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt.

5)While Cardozo often (adopted / adapted) law to new social conditions, he also often declined to make such adaptations.

6)Married Chinese women, in modern times, usually retain their maiden names as their family name, rather than the (adopted / adapted) name of their husband.

7)The Academy Award for Writing (Adopted / Adapted) Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States.

TASK 6 a) Study the following information:

There are three types of the if-clauses:

Icondition possible to fulfil (in the future – tomorrow)

IIcondition unlikely possible to fulfil (in the present and future – now and tomorrow)

III condition not possible to fulfil (in the past – yesterday)

Form:

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Examples:

TYPE

I Positive If you study, you will pass the exam.

Negative If you don’t study, you won’t pass the exam.

II Positive If you studied, you would pass the exam.

Negative If you didn’t study, you wouldn’t pass the exam.

III Positive If you had studied, you would have passed the exam.

Negative If you hadn’t studied, you wouldn’t have passed the exam.

Note: There is also the mixed type (the event in the main clause and the condition refer to different points of time):

If you had studied, you wouldn’t be sent down now. (mixed third / second conditional – with this combination we are contrasting an imagined or real event in the past with the present result of that);

If you weren’t so blind to his faults, you would have realised that he failed to study at university. (mixed second / third conditional – with this combination we are describing ongoing circumstances in relation to a previous past event).

b) Match the dependant clauses on the left with the main clauses on the right to make a meaningful sentence:

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c)Use the text to complete the following sentences:

1)If we form a club or group, even in an informal setting…

2)If we think about our family, or our school, past or present…

3)If any of these rules and customs are so important that we can be punished or made to make amends for not obeying them…

4)We know what may happen if we break these ‘laws’ —

TASK 7 Put the verbs in brackets in an appropriate grammar form:

Every sport (to have) to have its own set of rules. Imagine what it would be like trying to play cricket or football, tennis or netball without rules. Even the simplest sport such as running a race must (to have) rules. If it (to have) none at all, everyone would set off at different times and in different directions and stop at different places!

Sometimes new rules (to be introduced) into a sport to make it more enjoyable to play or watch for example the ‘offside’ rule in football and ‘limited overs’ rule in one-day cricket. After a while people (to forget) about the changes and the reasons for them, and the new rules become as much a part of the game as the old ones.

TASK 8 a) Summarise the following text in 5-6 sentences:

Law is, indeed, a part of human culture, of ‘that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society.’ It is both a product of civilisation, in that wherever groups of individuals have attained that stage of organisation and of control over their environment which we call civilisation, some kind of legal ordering of society is found, and it is also an essential of the continuance and development of civilisation, in that without a legal order to regulate conflicting claims and to resolve differences, civilisation would slip back into anarchy. The intimate connection between the legal system and the general culture of our society is

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Text 2

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE LAW?

[In Great Britain] We live on an island with a population of about 55 million people, and there are now thousands of laws which affect almost every aspect of our lives.

The laws which apply to everyone, throughout the whole country are called the laws of the land. It is, as we might expect, the law throughout the land that no one should rob, or steal, or deal in certain dangerous drugs.

The laws which only apply locally, in the areas in which we live, are called by-laws. For example, there are roads in our area and there may be a park near our home. There will be special local laws which govern the traffic which uses these roads, or the way in which those who visit this park should behave. These by-laws will apply only to our local roads and our local park, and not to all the roads and parks in the country.

Whether the laws which govern our behaviour are laws of the land or by-laws, they are almost always designed to improve our lives and protect us from harm. These laws give each of us rights and duties. We have rights ‘under the law’ which should be respected by others. We also have duties ‘under the law’ — to obey them, whether we like them or not; and when we do, we will automatically protect the rights of those around us. This simple balance — of our rights, which should be respected by others, and our duties towards others — is one of the basic structures of our laws.

Here are two easy examples.

We have the right to own our own property and to be left in peace to enjoy it. Anyone who steals it commits a crime and may

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be punished. Equally, we know that we must not steal things which belong to others. It is our duty to let them enjoy their property too. There are those who break this law, and cause much distress by doing so. What if it was not against the law to steal? Society would swiftly descend into chaos and violence.

We have the right to safety on the roads. We have speed limits on all public roads, because we have learned from experience that road accidents are usually caused by people driving too fast. Some drivers are better than others; some cars go faster than others. We all use the roads together — and all drivers, however experienced or inexperienced, have the duty to drive within the speed limits. If they do, this will help all road users to travel in safety.

Laws not only deal with very obvious things, such as stealing and driving too fast. They affect us in very many ways. The laws which make up our constitution are intended to guard our basic freedoms. They protect us against being governed by a dictator, and from tyranny. The laws which affect the way we lead our everyday lives are designed to protect us from many different kinds of harm.

Not everyone appreciates the extent to which our lives are surrounded and governed by laws of one kind or another. They may or may not be effective, but they are there. Indeed, there is little we do which is totally unaffected by the law.

The only way in which we can hope to live with one another in peace and security is by having laws made by people of good will, which provide for our safety and well-being. These must be laws which seem to be right and just, and which ordinary people will respect and obey because they seem to be right and just. If they do, they will expect others to obey them too — by being law-abiding citizens.

TERMS AND NOTIONS:

1.by-law – Noun [Middle English bilage, bilawe – local law, probably ultimately from Old Norse byr town + lagu law]

1)a rule adopted by an organization chiefly for the government of its members and the management of its affairs 2) a local ordinance often used in plural

2.law-abiding, adj. – (of individuals) adhering strictly to laws and rules and customs, law-revering, law-obedient, within the law: law-abiding citizens

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TASK 2 Add negative prefixes to the following words to form antonyms, use them to say why we need law:

expected, affected, responsible, just, effective, experienced, legal, lawful, behave, protected, use, interested

TASK 3 a) Study the following information:

Correlative conjunctions are used in pairs, in order to show the relationship between the ideas expressed in different parts of a sentence. For instance, in the following example, the expression either ... or is used to indicate that the ideas expressed in the two clauses represent two alternative choices of action: Either you should study harder, or you should take a different course.

The most commonly used correlative conjunctions are both ...

and, either ... or and neither ... nor. In the table below, each pair of correlative conjunctions is accompanied by an example of its use. Note that in the construction if ... then, the word then can usually be omitted:

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scarcely ... when Scarcely had we left home, when it started to rain.

barely … when Barely had he come in, when he remembered he'd left the iron on.

no sooner ... than No sooner had I reached the corner, than the bus came.

not only ... but also She is not only clever, but also hard-working. rather ... than I would rather go swimming than go to the

library.

b) Use correlative conjunctions in your own sentences when discussing the following:

Whether the laws which govern our behaviour are laws of the land or by-laws, they are almost always designed to improve our lives and protect us from harm.

TASK 4 a) Study the following information:

Confusion between the words affect and effect is quite common.

Generally speaking, affect is a verb and effect is a noun. When you affect something, you produce an effect on it. Even in the passive voice, something would be affected, not effected.

There are certain situations where effect is used as a verb and situations where affect is used as a noun, but very few people ever have a need to use them thus, so unless you are already confident of your ability to use these words correctly, just treat as general the rule that effect is a noun and affect a verb.

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