1kurs1semestrochnoe / Иностранный язык в сфере юриспруденции (английский)

But fines can be used for serious crimes if prison is not appropriate – for example, when a company breaks the law. Then the fine depends on ability to pay: rich people or organizations sometimes pay millions of pounds.

The standard punishment for serious offences is prison. You will probably go to prison if you commit burglary, robbery, battery, rape or murder. For criminals between the age of 15 and 20 there are special young offenders institutions.

Many people feel that criminals should go to prison but it is far from the perfect answer to the problem. When prisoners are released, they often carry on their lives of crime: in fact, they meet other criminals inside, get ideas from them and make useful contacts. A useful alternative to prison sentence is a suspended sentence. You remain free for a certain period of time and if you behave well, you will never serve your sentence. But if you commit another crime in the fixed period your suspended sentence is added to your new one.

Text: The History of Punishment

As with most countries in the world, the punishments enforced in the past seem brutal by our standards. Many of them were simply cruel, but generally just reflecting the mores1 of the age. Then death and suffering were often far closer to the lives of ordinary people than are to most of us today, living as we do in the sanitized2 21st century. It was common for most children to die in infancy and for many of the remainder not to live beyond their teens. For much of our history, the expectation was for marriage at or before the age of thirteen with highly probable death for women during childbirth by the age of twenty. The prospect for men was severe injury or death from wounds suffered in time of war or national conflict. For all, old age came frighteningly early: maybe by the time they were thirty in cities while their country cousins might hope for another ten years, if some illness, plague3 or accident did not carry them off sooner. When life was such a constant struggle for survival, there was little room for sentimentality. Furthermore, there was widespread belief in religion with the hope that the present life was a time of trial and testing in preparation for a better future in the hereafter4. Against such a grim background, physical punishment for even minor disobedience or misconduct seemed trivial and the punishments endured should be seen in this context.

For criminals, the punishments were often barbarous in the extreme, usually preceded by incarceration5 in a filthy, overcrowded, cold, damp and dark prison, perhaps confined with iron manacles6. If the prisoner was rich enough, he or she could often buy food or other 'luxuries' from the jailer and in some cases even pay another to take their place.

1mores – нравы

2sanitized – стерильный

3plague – чума

4hereafter – загробный мир

5incarceration – заключение в тюрьму

6manacles – (ручные) кандалы

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Torture to extract confessions was common and the methods used included 'pressing' with weights, the rack1 and the iron maiden2. Minor offences might be punished by branding3 with a red-hot iron. After the discovery of overseas lands which became part of the British Empire, transportation to the colonies was a popular punishment, serving both the purposes of removing the offender from the vicinity of his or her criminal associates and victims and also populating those far-off regions with Englishmen. Australia was a popular destination for such convicts4 and it was often the case that those who survived their sentence5 (typically seven years) would choose to remain in their new homeland. The age of criminal responsibility was low and young children might suffer these fates if convicted. Two favorite punishments were the stocks6 and the pillory7, which were in some ways similar. The stocks comprised two planks of wood clamped together at ground level with holes to imprison the offender's8 legs and sometimes his arms as well. The pillory comprised similar clamped planks, but raised on a post so that the offender was standing upright with his neck and wrists held firmly. In each case, the offender would be exposed for a fixed period – perhaps an hour – to the ridicule9 of passers-by. If the crime warranted it and the onlookers were so inclined, rubbish, rotten fruit and stones might be hurled at the pinioned10 criminal. The effect would be that all his neighbors would know of his offence. These gave rise to such common expressions as "a laughing stock", being "pilloried by the press", etc.

Many crimes were punishable by death, which for us usually meant hanging in a public place. This was regarded as a great spectacle and crowds would come to watch the hanging of a well-known person. The atmosphere was almost like a carnival, with seats being sold and rooms overlooking the place being let for the day. Food and drink sellers would ply their wares whilst pickpockets11 would risk their own freedom amongst the distracted crowds. Souvenirs would be sold, including lengths of the hangman's rope, items of the executed person's clothing and even bits of his body as these were thought to have curative or magical properties. Persons of high rank would often be beheaded12 and some could choose the implement used, an axe or a sword, and would pay the executioner to carry out his duty quickly with one clean cut. Again, the blood and body parts would be valued for various magical properties.

Now, the death sentence is forbidden throughout the EU, although most countries still find it an effective measure. Corporal punishment is also prohibited in schools and

1rack – дыба

2iron maiden – «железная дева» (средневековое орудие пыток в виде саркофага с шипами вовнутрь, часто выполненного в форме женщины)

3branding – клеймение

4convict – осужденный

5sentence – приговор

6Stocks – (мн. ист.) колодки

7pillory – позорный столб

8offender – преступник

9ridicule – осмеяние

10pinioned – (зд.) закованный в колодки

11pickpocket – вор-карманник

12behead – отрубать голову

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strongly discouraged at home. In fact, today, teachers have been deprived of so many sanctions against naughty1 children that a state of near anarchy exists in many schools. It is often reported that the violence is now usually carried out by the pupils (or their parents) against the teachers and it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit teachers to work in some schools, especially in inner-city2 schools with large undisciplined populations.

CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT3

Criminal punishment of persons who have committed crimes is one of the form of the state to fight against crime. Any criminal punishment is always a restriction of the rights of convicted persons. This restriction is a sort of retribution for the crime a person committed. If a person is convicted, the court decides on the most appropriate sentence. The facts of the offence, the circumstances of the offender, his/her previous convictions are taken into account. The more serious an offence is, the stricter a penalty should be.

But in any case, the responsibility of the court is to impose an exact and just punishment relevant to the gravity of a crime. The more just the punishment is, the greater is the possibility of a person's reformation. The defense lawyer may make a speech in mitigation on behalf of the offender.

There are the following basic penalties: deprivation of libertyimprisonment for a certain period of time or life imprisonment, exile, fines or public censure. Capital punishment is usually used only as an exceptional measure when an especially grave crime was committed. The list of such crimes is not long and it is strictly determined by law. There are quite a lot of countries where death penalty is prohibited.

1. Переведите и выучите следующие слова и выражения:

to restrict; restriction; to convict; retribution; to prevent; prevention; preventive measures; relevant (to);to deprive; deprivation; exile.

2.Просмотрите текст и выделите в каждом абзаце предложение, несущее основную смысловую нагрузку.

3.Составьте вопросы так, чтобы приведенные ниже предложения были бы к ним ответами:

1.No, a criminal punishment is not only a retribution for the offence committed

but also a form of prevention of crimes.

2. No, capital punishment is not yet prohibited in Russia.

1naughty – непослушный

2inner-city – центральная часть города (в крупных городах западных стран в центре часто проживает наименее обеспеченная часть населения)

3Немировская Э. А. Английский для юристов: учеб. пособие / Э. А. Немировская [и др.]; отв. ред. Т. М.

Десяткова. ─ М.: Омега-Л, 2004. ─ 376 с. ─ «English: We Study Law».

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3. A form of criminal punishment depends on the gravity of the crime committed and the personality of a criminal.

4. Переведите на русский язык, обращая внимание на страдательный залог:

1.A penalty must be imposed by the court.

2.The rights of the convicted persons are restricted.

3.There are some supplementary penalties that may be imposed on the convicted persons.

4.Capital punishment is permitted only in exceptional cases.

5.The list of crimes which can be punished by a sentence of death is denned by law.

5.Переведите на русский язык, обращая внимание на сравнительную конструкцию:

1.The longer the night, the shorter the day.

2.The more serious a crime is, the stricter punishment will be.

3.The sooner you start, the quicker you'll finish.

4.The more people you know, the less time you have to see them.

5.The more you read, the more you know.

6.Переведите названияследующих правонарушений:

а) burglary; kidnapping; shoplifting; blackmail; smuggling; forgery; fraud; terrorism; drug pushing; vandalism; manslaughter; murder.

b)What do you call the criminals who commit these crimes?

c)What are the crimes described in the following situations?

1.He threatened to send the love letters to her husband unless she gave him 500.

2.The telephone box had been smashed and there was graffiti all over the walls.

3.Department stores lose millions of pounds each year through goods being stolen off the shelves.

4.Thieves broke into the house while the family was away on holiday.

5.He watched with satisfaction as the fire he lit burnt down the factory. That'll make them wish they'd never given me the sack, he thought.

6.It was a perfect copy. It was so good, in fact, that it could even fool an expert.

TORT LAW1

A tort is a civil wrong that can be remedied by awarding damages (other remedies may also be available). These civil wrongs result in harm to a person or property that forms the basis of a claim by the injured party. The harm can be physical, emotional or financial. Examples of torts include medical negligence, negligent damage to private property and negligent misstatements causing financial loss.

1 “Introduction to International Legal English” Amy Krois-Lindner, Matt Firth “Cambridge University Press”, 2008 ─ 28 c.

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There are many specific torts, such as trespass, assault and negligence. Business torts include fraudulent misrepresentation, interference in contractual relations and unfair business practices.

Torts fall into three general categories: intentional torts (e.g. unfair competition), negligent torts (e.g. causing an accident by failing to obey traffic rules) and strict liability torts (e.g. liability for making and selling defective products).

Why some wrongs are dealt with by tort law (or the law of torts) and others considered criminal offences is the subject of some debate. However, there are certainly overlaps between tort law and criminal law. For example, a defendant can be liable to compensate for assault and battery in tort and also be punished for the criminal law offence of assault.

Differences between tort law and criminal law include: the parties involved (the state brings an action in crime, a private individual brings an action in tort); the standard of proof (higher in criminal law); and the outcomes (a criminal action may result in a conviction and punishment, whereas an action in tort may result in liability on the part of the defendant and damages awarded to the claimant1).

The primary aims of tort law are to provide relief for the harm suffered and deter other potential tortfeasors from committing the same harms. The injured person may sue for both an injunction to stop the tortious conduct and for monetary damages.

Depending on the jurisdiction, the damages awarded will be either compensatory or punitive. Compensatory damages are intended, as far as it is possible, to put the victim in the position he or she would have been in had the tort not occurred. Punitive damages are awarded to punish a wrongdoer. As well as compensation for damage to property, damages may also be awarded for: loss of earnings capacity, future expected losses, pain and suffering and reasonable medical expenses.

Use the collocations you formed in Exercise 4 to complete these sentences.

1. While a crime such as murder or shoplifting is a wrong committed against society, a

4. In medical malpractice cases, the damages awarded to the injured party may include

lost wages and...................................................

COMMERCIAL LAW1

1 “Introduction to International Legal English” Amy Krois-Lindner, Matt Firth “Cambridge University Press”, 2008 ─ 60 c.

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Commercial law is the body of law that governs trade and commerce. Reading:

Read the text below and decide whether these statements are true (T) or false (F).

1.Commercial law is a general term for a number of diverse areas of the law which regulate trade and commerce.

2.Contentious work includes the drafting of contracts and advising clients.

3.The Uniform Commercial Code applies to commercial transactions in all of the member nations of the European Union.

4.The World Trade Organisation checks to see if countries follow the trade agreements they have signed.

Commercial law deals with issues of both private law and public law. It developed as a distinct body of jurisprudence with the beginning of large-scale trade, and many of its rules are derived from the practices of traders. Specific law has developed in a number of commercial fields, including agency, banking, bankruptcy, carriage of goods, commercial dispute resolution, company law, competition law, contract, debtor and creditor, sale of goods and services, intellectual property, landlord and tenant, mercantile agency, mortgages, negotiable instruments, secured transactions, realproperty and tax law.

The work of a commercial lawyer may involve any aspect of the law as it relates to a firm's business clients, and the role of the lawyer is to facilitate business clients' commercial transactions. It is essential for a commercial lawyer to have not only a good knowledge of a lot of substantive law, but also a thorough understanding of both contemporary business practices and the particular business needs of each client.

A commercial lawyer may be asked to advise a client on matters relating to both noncontentious and contentious work. Non-contentious work largely involves advising clients on the drafting of contracts, whereas contentious work commonly involves the consequences of breach of contract

Many jurisdictions have adopted civil codes that contain comprehensive statements of their commercial law, e.g. the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which has been generally adopted throughout the USA. Within the European Union, the European Parliament and the legislatures of member nations are working to unify their various commercial codes.

A substantial amount of commercial law is governed by international treaties and conventions. The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) regulates international trade in cooperation with the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

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The WTO is responsible for negotiating and implementing new trade agreements, and is in charge of policing member countries' adherence to these agreements, which are signed by the majority of the world's trading nations and ratified by their legislatures (for example, Parliament in the UK or Congress in the USA).

Choose the correct word or phrase to complete these definitions.

1.‘Agency’ is the term for the relationship of a person who acts in addition to / on behalf of / on account of another person, known as the principal.

2.Bankruptcy is when someone cannot pay what they owe / own / won, and all their property is surrendered to a court-appointed person who liquidates the property to pay the claims of creditors / owners / debtors.

3.A secured transaction is a loan or credit translation / transaction / termination in which the lender / loaner / debtor acquires a security interest in certain property owned by the borrower and has the right to repossess the property if the borrower cannot pay.

4.Negotiable instruments are documents which represent a right of charge / payment/ credit for a specified sum of money on demand or at a defined time.

1. Дополнительные текстыдлячтения:

Text:The Perfect Crime

Alice Jackson's husband, Henry, was a man of habit. So it was that at exactly six o'clock in the evening she was in the kitchen getting a beer for him out of the fridge and watching him walk up the path.

She was smiling. Today the routine was going to be different. It was their tenth wedding anniversary, and some friends were coming round for drinks at 8.00. There was a big ice statue of a couple kissing in the middle of the table in the living room, with twenty glasses waiting for the guests. Alice was looking forward to the evening.

She was very happy. She had a beautiful baby sleeping upstairs, a lovely home, and a husband who she adored.

Henry opened the door and came into the kitchen. She turned round to kiss him and give him his beer.

''Sit down, Henry said. 'I've got something to say.''

Alice had no idea that in the next two minutes her whole life was going to change.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'And it's our anniversary, as well. But it's just that Kathy and I are in love. Bobby won't miss me, he's too young.'

She didn't believe her cars. She was in a dream,

'I'll get ready for the party,' she said. She walked into the living room. When she returned, Henry was standing with his back to her, drinking his beer. She was carrying something heavy. He turned. 'What on earth ...?' These were Henry Jackson's last words. His wife hit him over the head.

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At first he didn't move, and then he fell to the floor.

Suddenly Alice began to think very clearly. She took the ice statue back to the living room, and phoned the police.

Then she turned up the central heating, and went upstairs to put on some make-

up.

The police came quickly. 'Is he all right?' she asked. 'He's dad.'

Alice screamed. 'No, no, not Henry! My Henry! Oh Henry!' Through her tears she told how she put the baby to bed, and came downstairs to find Henry on the kitchen floor.

'Burglars,' said Detective Parry. They took her into the living room.

'Sit down, Mrs. Jackson. Sergeant Taylor, get Mrs. Jackson a drink. A brandy with some ice. Phew! It's hot in this room. I hope you understand, Mrs. Jackson, that we have to search the house immediately. We must find the murder weapon.'

The room was getting hotter. Suddenly an arm fell off the ice statue onto the table. It was melting. Sergeant Taylor went to the statue and picked up the melting arm. He broke it into bits and put some into Alice's brandy.

'Phew! Can I have a glass of water, Mrs. Jackson? It's so hot in here.'

think we all need one,' said the detective. “And, with ice”. They were all very hot and thirsty.

Alice's friends arrived. 'Poor, Alice! Poor, Henry!' They cried, and they tried to comfort her.

'Oh, thank you, thank you,' sobbed Alice. 'Please ... stay and have a drink. Help yourselves,'

They all had drinks – gin and tonic, whisky – and they all had ice. The statue was now nearly a pool of water on the floor.

"1 wonder what the burglar hit him with,' said one guest.

'Who knows?' said another, taking a sip of her drink. Alice heard this conversation, and smiled into her brandy.

1.Дайте ответы на следующие вопросы:

1)What is the text about?

2)Why is it called «the Perfect crime»?

3)What is the main idea of the text?

Text: After her Husband’s Death

Catherine now ran the inn, and the work there helped her to cope with her husband’s death. Yet, in the nine months since the bridge tragedy, she still believed that someday the door would open and Ed would cheerfully call, «Where are my girls?" Sometimes she found herself listening for the sound of her husband’s voice.

Now, in addition to all the shock and grief, her finances had become an urgent problem. Two years earlier, Catherine had closed the inn for six months, mortgaged it and completed a massive renovation and redecoration project.

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One Friday afternoon Catherine was in the house, getting ready to go to the inn dinner hour. The insurance people were expected soon. But, when the two gloomy looking executives arrived, it was not to begin the process of payment. «Mrs. Collins", the older of the two said, “I hope you will understand our position. We sympathize with you and understand the situation you are in. The problem is that we cannot authorize payment on your husband’s policies without a death certificate and that is not going to be issued".

Catherine stared at him. "You mean it’s not going to be issued until they have absolute proof of his death?" But suppose his body was carried down the river clear into the Atlantic?"

Both men looked uneasy. "All the other bodies have been recovered. There isn’t too much as wheel or engine part of a Cadillac in the riverbed below the accident site".

"Тhen you’re saying..." Catherine was finding it hard to form words.

"We are saying that the executive report on the accident categorically states that Edwin Collins could not have perished in the bridge tragedy that night. The experts fell that even though he may have been in the vicinity of the bridge, no one believes Edwin Collins was a victim. We believe he was in none of the cars involved in the accident and took advantage of that favorable happening to make the disappearance he was planning. We think he reasoned he could take care of you and your daughter through the insurance and go on to whatever life he had already planned to begin in South America or somewhere else."

Complete the sentences:

1.Catherine was so much depressed after her husband’s death that she:

a)couldn’t work

b)started hearing Ed`s voice

c)believed he would return

d)talked to Ed through the door

2.Catherine needed money because she:

a)had to run the inn

b)wanted to renovate the inn

c)wanted to forget her grief

d)had wasted her money

3.The insurance people came to see Catherine to tell her that:

a)the company couldn’t pay the money without a document

b)the insurance company refused to issue a death certificate

c)Edwin Collin’s body had been found in the Atlantic

d)Edwin Collin’s car had been found in the river

4. The executive report stated that Edwin:

a)was caught in one of the cars

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b)was seen in the vicinity of the bridge

c)could have died in the accident

d)could not have been a victim

5. The insurance people thought that Edwin Collins:

a)lived in South America

b)had organized his disappearance

c)did not care for his wife

d)had planned to return home.

Causes of Crime

1. Match the following headings with the section of the text below:

Psychological and psychiatrist theories

Biological theories

Multiple causation theory

Social environment theories

Theological and ethical theories

Climatic theory

(1)No one knows why crime occurs. The oldest theory, based on theology and ethics, is that criminals are perverse persons who deliberately commit crimes or who do so at the instigation of the devil or other evil spirits. Although this idea has been discarded by modern criminologists, it persists among uniformed people and provides the rationale for the harsh punishments still meted out to criminals in many parts of the world.

(2)Since the 18th century, various scientific theories have been advanced to explain

crime. One of the first efforts to explain crime on scientific, rather than theological, grounds was made at the end of the 18th century by the German physician and

anatomist Franz Joseph Gall, who tried to establish the relationships between skull structure and criminal proclivities. This theory, popular during the 19th century, is now discredited and has been abandoned. A more sophisticated theory – a

biological one – was developed late in the 19th century by the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, who asserted that crimes were committed by persons who are born with certain recognizable hereditary physical traits. Lombroso’s theory was disproved early in the 20th century by the British criminologist Charles Goring. Goring’s comparative study of jailed criminals and law-abiding persons established that so-called criminal types, with innate dispositions to crime, do not exist. Recent scientific studies have tended to confirm Goring’s findings. Some investigators still hold, however, that specific abnormalities of the brain and of the endocrine system contribute to a person’s inclination toward criminal activity.

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