ENGLISH-IN-LAW. Textbook

8.Since June, two young people who were under arrest have died … the hands of the police.

9.The court will decide how much money you get – the decision is … our hands.

10.The process has suffered badly … their hands.

11.If calculators are permitted, we have no idea whether or not students can compute … hand.

12.Things got a little … hand at the party and three windows were broken.

13.When we deliver your new refrigerator, we’ll take the old one … your hands.

14.In my first year at college my drinking got a bit … hand.

15.To have a few basic shops and services near … hand is a great thing.

16.The new gun law is designed to keep automatic weapons … the hands of the wrong people.

TASK 15 a) Retell the text:

Glanville Williams (1911—1997, a prominent and preeminent Welsh legal scholar, the Professor of English Law at the University of Cambridge, Britain’s foremost scholar of criminal law) in ‘Learning the law’ gives the following definition of law:

“Law is the cement of society and also an essential medium of change. Knowledge of law increases one’s understanding of public affairs. Its study promotes accuracy of expression, facility in argument and skill in interpreting the written word, as well as some understanding of social values”.

b) Agree or disagree with the following:

Glanville Williams’s definition of law.

Knowledge of law increases one’s understanding of public affairs.

The study of law promotes accuracy of expression, facility in argument and skill in interpreting the written word, as well as some understanding of social values.

Good laws make good lawyers.

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TASK 16 a) Look up the meanings of the idioms:

be a law unto yourself, above the law, get on the wrong side of the law, in the eyes of the law, the letter of the law, lay down the law, take the law into your own hands, the law of the jungle, there’s no law against something/doing something, someone’s word is law, Murphy’s law, etc.

b) Use some of these idioms in the following contexts:

Two burglars from Texas decided it would be a brilliant idea to rob a store that sells security cameras. But they forgot to stay away from the devices and the 17 functioning security cameras in the store caught them in the act of stuffing over ten thousand dollars’ worth of surveillance equipment into some garbage cans.

Jonathan Parker had a serious problem; he was addicted to Facebook. Perhaps more serious, he was addicted to checking Facebook while robbing houses. After breaking into a home in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania and stealing two diamonds worth $3,500, Parker logged into Facebook to check what his criminal friends were up to, or perhaps to change his status to “totally robbing a house”. While there is nothing wrong with doing this, he forgot to log out of his account when he left and consequently the next time someone used the computer, they saw all of Jonathan Parker’s information and apprehended him shortly thereafter.

TASK 17 Comment on the following:

1.“Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.” (Francis Bacon, 1561—1626, an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, and author, in “Essays” — “Of Revenge”, 1625)

2.“Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.” (attributed to Edward Gibbon, 1737— 1794, an English historian, author, and MP)

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ADDITIONAL TASKS

TASK 1 a) Look up the word dictatorship. What other words formed with this suffix do you know?

b)Translate the following:

1.You can go to the Royal College of Art in London and your draftsmanship, your drawing from life classes will continue.

2.The relationship between European countries has changed lately.

3.He also holds chairmanships at a famous international law firm.

4.A service to check British citizenship applications is launched in Bath for those who want British nationality.

5.The closing date for entries for this year’s scholarship is 31 August.

c)Define the meaning of membership in each of the following:

1.Affiliated membership is also open to any body, corporation or unincorporated association which is interested in furthering our work.

2.However, membership of final salary schemes in the public sector rose slightly to 5.2 million.

3.House of Lords membership could be almost halved under reform plans being considered, it is reported.

TASK 2 Translate the following sentences:

1.You can’t learn any foreign language without studying of grammar rules.

2.On seeing me she gave a cry.

3.We learned a lot about the usage of the gerund by reading this list of rules.

4.Besides learning grammar rules we also study new words.

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Text 20

THE LIMITS ON GOVERNMENT POWER

Some governments are dictatorships of a person or party; othersareconstitutionalgovernments.Constitutionalgovernments are not all democratic, but in all of them there are some legal limits on the power of the rulers. In practice these limits can only be imposed by law, backed by public opinion. Indeed one of the main, and one of the oldest, functions of law is to limit the power of governments. Democracy makes the restrictions more effective, because in a democracy the rulers know that they will have to stand for re-election. It is true that, apart from legal limits on its powers, there are practical limits to what a government can do by way of oppressing its subjects. Some are technical. It is not easy even with modern devices to spy on people at home. Morality and self-interest also play a part: the scruples or calculations of rulers or those to whom they give orders. The rulers may feel that there are things, like imprisoning the opposition without trial, that they should not do even when they would find it convenient. Or the army and police may be reluctant to arrest and shoot the government’s opponents. But only law can give the limits on government power a settled form. A law that forbids imprisonment without trial for more than so many days is quite likely to be respected. It can be relied on with some confidence by the person arrested, his family and advisers. A feeling that it is morally wrong or politically dangerous to imprison an opponent without trial is much less reliable. How wrong or dangerous the rulers think it to be will vary from case to case. The disappearance of an opposition leader will be noticed. If a teenager from an obscure family vanishes, his fate

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will hardly stir the waters. If the teenager belongs to a subversive group, the case against killing him will seem to the rulers a weak one. They might as well have him arrested and shot. Morality and self-interest, then, are not enough by themselves to ensure that rulers behave decently. But they are the foundation on which legal restraints on government have to build, because laws limiting their power will not be effective unless the rulers themselves accept them.

TASK 1 a) Read the text. Look up the following words and word combinations in a dictionary:

to govern v government n

a limit (on smth.) to limit v

to impose a limit a subject n

to subject v be subject to

to rely (on smth.) reliable adj

to vary v variable adj variety n obscure adj

b)Use the words from the list above in the following sentences:

1.The audience listened to the speech which was full of … political jokes.

2.All such gatherings … to the laws on political meetings

3.The government has … an 8% … on pay awards.

4.Don’t … on the bank lending you the money.

5.I have it on … evidence that the hospital is going to be closed down.

6.Opinions on this matter ….

7.She didn’t like the work because it lacked …; she was doing the same things all the time.

8.In Britain the Queen is the formal head of the state, but it is the prime minister and the state who …

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TASK 2 Study the use of zero article, a(n)+noun, the+noun:

1.He has a dog. (specific meaning)

2.A dog is a domestic animal. (general meaning)

3.There’s a dog outside the door. (the listener does not know which person or thing)

4.She feeds the dog. (specific meaning)

5.The dog has always accompanied the man. (general meaning)

6.The dog outside is white. (the listener knows which)

7.She has dogs in the house. (specific meanings)

8.Dogs are not popular in some cultures as monkeys. (general meaning)

TASK 3 Analyze the following sentences with the word “government” to explain why it is used with the zero article, with the indefinite article or with the definite article:

1.Conventions are rules and practices which are not legally enforceable, but which are regarded as indispensable to the working of government.

2.Many conventions derive from historical events through which the British system of government has evolved.

3.The organs of government overlap, but can be clearly distinguished.

4.The executive consists of the government-the cabinet and ministers responsible for national politics and other bodies.

5.Britain is governed by her Majesty’s government in the name of the Queen.

6.The Queen still takes part in some important acts of government.

7.By convention the Queen invites the leader of the political party which commands a majority in the House of Commons to form a government.

8.The Queen has the power to recognize foreign states and governments.

9.The effectiveness of the party system in parliament rests largely on the relationship between the Government and the opposition parties.

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TASK 4 What words in the text are formed from the following?

to oppose, prison, to rule, to govern, to retain, to rely

TASK 5 a) Agree or diagree with the sentence from the text:

If a teenager from an obscure family vanishes, his fate will hardly stir the waters.

Note. The expression “to stir the waters” is an idiom, which means “to produce strong feelings”. An idiom is a phrase which means something different from the meanings of the separate words from which it is formed; e. g. “To kick the bucket” is an English idiom meaning “to die”.

b) Suggest an eqivalent idiom in your language.

TASK 7 What words in the text are formed from the following?

convenience, to oppose, reluctance, to retain, to calculate, to scruple, to rely

TASK 8 Answer the following questions.

1.How do you understand the term ‘constitutional government’?

2.Why does democracy call for more restrictions on government?

3.How can law restrain government?

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Text 21

THE RULE OF LAW

Mostcitizens,andnearlyalllawyers,thinkthatgovernments should be subject to the ‘rule of law’. But what is the rule of law? It exists when a government’s powers are limited by law and citizens have a core of rights that the rulers are bound to uphold, and actually do uphold.

A society may observe its own laws without observing the rule of law. Suppose it has a law that citizens can be detained indefinitely without trial. In that case, if a citizen is arrested and detained without trial, the laws of that society are respected, but the rule of law is violated. This is because, if citizens can be kept in prison for the rest of their life without being tried, any other rights they may in theory – have are almost worthless. For the rule of law to prevail some laws, like the detention without trial law, are ruled out. The rule of law is an attractive ideal. But to impose limits on government power is expensive. If the limits are to be effective, there must be independent bodies (generally courts) to see that they are respected. If the powers of government are curbed, it takes longer to reach decisions. Government becomes more complicated, and in an extreme case can grind to a halt. A poor country cannot afford all the limits on government that may be possible in a richer one. The advantages of the rule of law are obvious, so long as it is not too expensive and does not paralyse government. But how far should the restraints on government go? Opinions differ. The trustful school of thought holds that the legal limits on government should be kept to a minimum. They favour strong, decisive government. This outlook has traditionally been dominant in Britain, though opinion is now changing.

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The sceptical school of thought reckons that governments are not to be trusted. It sets out to multiply legal controls over them. These controls may take various forms: the separation of powers, federalism, bills of rights, judicial review. The sceptical view prevails in the USA, where all these controls exist. Most other countries fall somewhere between the two. We shall be weighing up the argument between the trustful and sceptical views. We can take the British constitution as an example of the trustful and the American constitution as an example of the sceptical view. It is worth noting that the British constitution is largely unwritten while the American constitution is mainly to be found in a written document, the Constitution, that first came into force in 1789, though it has been amended since. The sceptical school mistrusts any undertaking that is not in writing. The trustful school thinks that the limits on government power should be few. In a country like Britain a good way of making sure that the limits are few is to have a sovereign legislature. This is because in Britain the government has to resign if it loses the support of the legislature (the House of Commons in particular). So the government normally has to have and does in fact have the support of the legislature; and it can exercise any powers that it can persuade the legislature to give it.

TASK 1 a) Read the text. Look up the following words and word combinations in a dictionary:

the rule of law core (of smth.) n detain v detention n afford (of smth.) v favour v

favour n resign v resignation n

b)Use the words from the list above in the following sentences:

1.We simply can’t … to offend such an important customer.

2.These beliefs are thought to be the … values of the humanity.

3.The president is believed to … the further tax cuts.

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