Вопросы для контроля и самоконтроля criminal and civil law

1. What does criminal law concern?

2. What is a crime?

3. What are the elements of a crime?

4. What are the categories of crime?

5. How must the defendant’s guilt be proven?

6. What are the purposes of punishment?

7. What are types of punishment do you know?

8. What is civil law related to?

9. What do civil cases arise from?

10. What is a contract?

11. When is a breach of contract?

12. What is a tort?

13. What are the parties in a civil suit?

14. Who is a plaintiff?

15. What must a plaintiff do to win a case?

16. What must a defendant do to win a case?

17. What is the outcome of a civil case?

The legal profession

1. The lawyer is a person whose principal occupation to make and administer the law. Lawyers are engaged in forming and implementing social, political and economic policy. The lawyers of different countries differ widely from one another.

2. The legal profession in Britain is divided into two branches: barristers and solicitors. Barristers are known collectively as the Bar and individually as counsels. Barristers are specialists in litigation strategy and advocacy in all higher civil and criminal courts. Barristers are required to dress formally when appearing in a court, which involves wearing wigs and gowns. The highest level of barristers have the title QC (Queen’s Counsel). Only barristers can become judges in anу English Court above Magistrates’ Court.

3. Solicitors generally focus on paper work in a law firm. The functions of solicitors are to undertake legal business for their clients, including such matters as the conveyance of property, the drawing up of wills and giving of legal advice. A solicitor also deals with petty crimes and some matrimonial matters (when a case is of divorce or recovering debts) in Magistrates’ Courts, the lowest Courts. He prepares the case and evidence. He actually speaks in Court for you.

4. Besides barristers and solicitors there are other professions in British legal sphere. Magistrates are unpaid judges, usually chosen from well-respected people in the local community. They are not legally qualified and are guided on points of law by the clerks. Coroners (коронеры) have medical or legal training (or both) and investigate violent or unnatural deaths. Investigators collect facts, examine witnesses, perform a search. Arbitrators settle disputes arising between the parties to the contract.

5. There are no barristers and solicitors in American legal system. Lawyers are divided into attorneys who spend most of their time preparing for and being at trial or on appeal for a client, and the other lawyers, who spend most of their time drafting documents or tax plans, and negotiating financing arrangements. This distinction, however, is not based on any separate licensing of the lawyer, but simply on what a lawyer feels he is qualified to do. There is some specialization in the activity of many American lawyers, such as labor law, divorce law, criminal law, tax law, etc.

6. The work carried out by lawyers in Russia is different. The profession of a lawyer consists of several co-ordinate professions, each constituting a career in itself. Such are, for instance, the professions of judge, diplomat, higher civil servant, prosecutor, public defender, notary, legal adviser, law teacher or scholar.

7. Judges are appointed to administer the law. The judges apply the appropriate rules of the law to the facts given in court by both parties and certify by their judgments the obligations or penalties for the parties of the trial. Higher civil servants are engaged in forming and implementing social, political and economic policy, so they should be qualified in different aspects of law. The prosecutor is responsible for bringing criminal charges against individuals who are suspected of having committed a crime. The public defender is responsible for defending the criminally accused who cannot pay for a lawyer. The notary is engaged in different kinds of paper work, such as drawing up of wills, legalizing documents, etc. Legal advisors consult business firms, governmental agencies or individuals on different questions of law. The law teacher or scholar gives lectures on different areas of legal theory and practice.

8. And at last the President of Russia and the Prime Minister are also lawyers!