Английский для юристов основы перевода международных документов. Учебное пособие

In the third area of legal terms, there are different divisions and branches of law that have special sets of vocabulary. Within the Civil Law family, in both public and private law, the same fundamental branches are found in all the countries of this family: constitutional law, administrative law, public international law, criminal law, the law of procedure, civil law, commercial law, labour law etc. If we compare the legal institutions and domains of law of the Common Law and the Civil Law, there are many conceptual and structural differences. For instance, the Civil Law has such institutions as cause, abuse of right, the direct action, the oblique action, and these are foreign to the Common Law. A branch of the English legal structure, equity, is an example that does not have an exact counterpart in the Civil Law. In the English system, there is a division of law called ‘equity’. This is unique and the legal concepts and most of the legal rules found in this branch of law do not exist in other legal systems. The ordinary and lay meaning of the word ‘equity’ means fairness and equality. However, equity under discussion here refers to a body of legal rules formu­lated and administered by the Court of Chancery in England to supplement the rules and procedures of the common law. It was developed in the last few hun­dred years. By the Judicature Act 1837, the Court of Chancery was amalga­mated with the Common Law Courts to form the Supreme Court in England, and the rules of equity are administered alongside the common law rules in all English courts. The basic principle is where there is any conflict between the rules of law and equity, equity is to prevail.