ENGLISH-IN-LAW. Textbook

(If you feel the need to get fancy, however, here are the meanings of effect as a verb and affect as a noun. As a verb, effect means to execute, produce, or accomplish something; as a noun, affect is used primarily by psychologists to refer to feelings and desires as factors in thought or conduct.)

b) In each sentence choose one appropriate word:

If negotiators wish to avail of this benefit, they must follow the correct procedures to give legal affect/effect to their work.

The quake also affected/effected Earth’s shape.

If you affect/effect something, you bring it into existence. Today people are talking about the You Tube affect/effect. Continued existence of parallel structures affect/effect rule of

law in Kosovo, says report by OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe).

Most of us probably won’t be affected/effected by this new law though.

The law grants electronic signatures the same legal affect/ effect as handwritten signatures.

Relief workers are struggling to help at least 20 million people affected/effected by floods in South Asia.

A lower court temporarily suspended the law, but its supporters are seeking to overturn that injunction so the law can take affect/ effect.

Some recent tax law changes are effective for the 2004 Tax Year. If these items affect/effect you, be sure to get the details when you prepare your tax return.

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9)protect i) take measures in preparation

10)govern j) put into action

11)provide for k) watch over or shield from danger or harm;

protect

TASK 6 Find words in the text which mean the same as the following: knowledge, acquire, scope, stipulated, work, set down, specified, dispute, obligation, comply, regulations, diploma or certificate stating one’s abilities, behave improperly, bias

Use English-English dictionary to help you:

We all have experience of school because it is the law that every child up to the age of sixteen must receive an education, and almost all children are educated in school. Let us take a look at the law in the context of a day in school, as it is today, to think of just a few of the wide range of laws which apply to this simple situation:

Going to school

First we are doing something without even thinking about it. We are breathing. The very air we breathe is protected against some forms of pollution by the law.

We wash and get dressed. The water we use must be of a certain quality as specified by the law; and if the clothes we wear were made in factories in this country, conditions of employment and safety for the workers in those factories are provided by the law.

Breakfast? The food we eat must be of a certain quality and standard, as laid down by the law. There are numerous laws relating to the production and preparation of almost every type of food. There is often controversy over how much the law should regulate our food, and whether we should be free to eat unhealthy food if we want to. The publicity given to the dangers from BSE shows that, in fact, we have come to rely on the law to protect us from unhealthy food; and there is much anger when it seems to

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have failed. The story continues, with arguments about genetically modified foods and the responsibility of the government to ensure our safety.

How do we get to school? Whether we walk or go by transport, try to imagine how many laws affect even a short journey to school — all the dozens of safety requirements for vehicles, the quality of the road surface, the safety of the pavements, the speed of the traffic, the duty to obey road signs. They all are governed by laws of one kind or another.

Arriving at school, we may be surprised to learn how many laws govern our day there — from the safety of the school premises and equipment, to the hygiene of the kitchens. Then the law provides guidelines for the quality of education which everyone attending State schools must receive. Teachers must have certain qualifications before they can teach. Children up to a certain age must receive so many English and maths lessons, games periods and breaks.

The law also controls the ways in which teachers may or may not punish us if we misbehave. It even has something to say about the way in which teachers and children should behave towards one another. They must not allow prejudice to result in different treatment, for it is against the law to discriminate against anyone on account of his or her sex, colour, race or religion

Notes:

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease of cattle, which infects by a mechanism that surprised biologists upon its discovery in the late 20th century.

TASK 7 a) Agree or disagree with the statements in the text, illustrate them with your own examples:

The ‘law’ is rarely out of the news and is often the focus for fictional drama, whether it is a television show depicting a police investigation, or one involving solicitors and advocates. It is something that touches our lives on a daily basis, it governs what we can and cannot do, it is used to settle disputes, to punish and to govern. There are laws which are widely accepted and laws which

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generate controversy. Laws play a central role in social, political and economic life. Many lawyers feel that a society cannot be properly understood or explained without an understanding of its law, legal system and legal culture.

There are many definitions of law. Many people think they know what the law is when they see it, and your individual viewpoint will affect how you define law.

b) Divide into groups and describe modern TV-shows on legal issues, use the following questions:

•Why is it important to broadcast such shows?

•How do they affect legal culture in the society?

•Where do people receive legal advice?

•Should an anchorperson in these shows be a lawyer or a journalist or an actor?

•Who is usually invited to such shows?

•Who usually watches them?

TASK 8 We are governed by a society of rules and laws. We do our best to live by these laws and abide by them or else face serious consequences the highest of these being death. The law affects our personal lives on a daily basis. But what if we did not have these rules and laws?

What would society be like or look like, would we live in civilized world, or would it be a world of complete chaos? What do you think? What would life be like without laws? Discuss in groups and give a short description of such a society

Here are some examples taken from http://www.collegent.com/ elect/app/app?service=external/Forum&sp=14214 that may help you to shape your ideas:

1)I think for the most part people live with a built in set of morals and values they learn from their parents and those around them. So....depending on what type of environment you were raised in — I don’t believe there would be utter chaos without laws, but I do believe we need some sort of guidelines for the heathens who need consequences for their actions.

2)For the most part, I believe that Man is governed by innate morals and ideals, which can later be strengthened by their

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environment, upbringing, religious beliefs etc. So, if societal laws were not implemented I don’t believe it would just be utter chaos with people running on killing rampages or anything. However, I think societal laws are in place for a reason. While the majority of society knows right for wrong, there are those that don’t or just don’t care to, so laws are in place to maintain boundaries and punishments for people like that.

3)I think there would definitely be anarchy in some parts of the world but overall I think most people would follow guidelines that everyone just mutually agrees on. Just because there is no law against murder anymore, doesn’t make it right to kill someone. Values and morals would still exist, there would just be no punishment for those who chose not to follow them. I feel like we would have different societies and they would be split up into different sections of a country. Maybe the South would be the dangerous place to go because it has no order and the North would retain some form.

4)I know for a fact that it would be total and complete chaos! It’s only logical that criminals would find this the perfect time to reap their havoc and the innocent would just have to suffer I guess? The world is a shady place and we never know how another person is going to react to something.

5)COMPLETE CHAOS! We need laws to live by because we are naturally selfish beings. We’ll do anything to get what we need and want. Rules have always existed and they haven’t gone away for a reason, and that reason is that they keep us sane and alive! I can’t even imagine what the world would be like. And I would never want to experience it firsthand.

TASK 9 At home write an essay on this topic.

Example: In my opinion a society without laws is a society in a state of chaos. A state without laws and government would be anarchy. By definition anarchy is a state of disorder due to the absence or recognition of an authority figure. Life without some type of rules to control us would literally be a state of disorder.

We are all human beings, and by human nature we have flaws. If these flaws are not controlled in some way, they can get out of hand and wreak havoc upon a person and the people around him.

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If there were no laws, people would do as they pleased. On a daily basis you would see theft, murder, rape and cruel and harsh life that would apply Darwin’s theory; only the strong would survive. The weaker people of a society who could not survive in a completely free state would suffer and diminish because their rights would in no way be protected. There would be no justice. If a family member were murdered, there would be no one to turn to. The government enforces laws such as not killing people. In this type of society the people who would prosper would be uncontrollable. For example the law requires that people show up for their jobs or else they are fired. These jobs provide a basic lifestyle for us. If one day when laws were gotten rid of, people just didn’t show up for work, we would lose all things that are vital for our everyday lives. Such things are food, transportation, and education. Without laws controlling these people they could simply not show up for work and we would be left without farmers to grow our food, city transportation worker who take us from one place to another, and education which prepares us for life.

But like everything else in the world, there is a good side and a bad side. Even in a lawless state of chaos there are a few positive aspects of this type of lifestyle. For example a person can chose if they wish to receive an education unlike today’s society where every person is required by law to have at least completed 10 years of education. Also people would be free to make their own choices. They wouldn’t have to conform to the everyday expectations of today’s society.

Even though there are positives in this situation they could also be viewed from a negative angle. A person with no education doesn’t develop the common sense that is required for a normal lifestyle. These people could be living a very backward and primitive lifestyle based solely on intuition. This is a bad situation because when a person relies on intuition many things may go wrong. They could miss interpret their intuition and in turn hurt someone because they think they are right. Education teaches you to understand and control your emotions. So without an education a person would be very disorderly. The idea of a person being able to make his or her own choices would also be a positive facet that could turn out as a negative facet. Making your own choices based

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Text 3

THE AIMS OF LAW

Law has several aims. They are all concerned with making society more stable and enabling people to flourish. One way of doing this is to set up an official framework of compulsion. The law forbids certain ways of behaving, like murder, libel, and parking on double yellow lines, and requires others, like paying income tax. If people disobey the rules the law threatens them with something unpleasant (often called a sanction), like being punished or having to pay compensation. The idea is that within this framework of do’s and don’ts people can live more securely. If they are more secure they will treat one another better.

A second aim is to provide facilities for people to make their own arrangements. Laws guarantee to people who buy and sell goods, make wills, take employment, form companies and so on that the state will if necessary enforce these arrangements.

A third aim is to settle disputes about what the law is and whether it has been broken.

Taking these three aims together, we see that law not only threatens those who do what it forbids but promises to protect people’s interests. It imposes restrictions on them but also gives them certain guarantees.

Lastly, a very important aim of law is to settle what the system of government is to be. Today and for the last few hundred years we have been mainly governed by sovereign states. That is changing. We are now increasingly governed, indirectly or directly, by international bodies (for example through treaties such as those

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setting up the European Union). But the state still occupies centre stage, especially when it comes to enforcing laws.

These four aims are central to a system of law.

Law, then, consists of constitutional arrangements plus officially-backed rules that tell us how to behave or help us to make private arrangements or provide for settling disputes. These are all connected because the constitution settles who is entitled to lay down the rules.

TASK 1 Study this useful vocabulary:

framework, n – a supporting or underlying structure, skeleton, order, scheme

body, n – a group of people organised for a particular purpose facility, n (-ies, pl.) – opportunity, special equipment or a system which makes it possible to do smth.

compulsion, n – a force or influence that makes someone do smth.

arrangement, n – a group of things that have been agreed on enforce, v – to make people obey a rule or law, to make sure law is obeyed

entitle, v – to give an official right to have or to do smth.

TASK 2 Match the words on the left with their synonyms on the right:

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TASK 3 Make up sentences with the following word combinations to speak on law-enforcement bodies:

to set up a framework; to forbid a certain behaviour; to disobey the rules; to threaten somebody with sanctions; to provide facilities; to make arrangements; to enforce the laws; to settle disputes; to protect interests; to impose restrictions

TASK 4 Define the following legal terms:

murder, libel, tax, treaty, state, constitution, public, private, regulations, a will, government

TASK 5 a) Find all Gerund combinations in the text and translate them.

b) Find the difference in the Gerund and Participle combinations:

TASK 6 Find an odd word in each group:

1.body – entity – title – structure

2.to forbid – to allow – to prohibit – to refuse

3.to concern – to involve – to interest – to fix

4.sovereign – independent – various – supreme

5.facilities – details – means – equipment

6.to enforce – to employ – to impose – to urge

TASK 7 Answer the following questions:

1.What social problems can be solved with the help of law?

2.What conduct does the law prohibit?

3.What do’s and don’ts do you follow?

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