Task 15. Role play. Detention of a Suspect in the Robbery

Situation: By the operations report the police detained a person in the evening. He was found on the bank’s roof near a vent-pipe. He was supposed to be waiting for his accessory/accomplice (співучасник) who had to break into a safe in the bank’s storehouse and then to get out onto the roof through the vent-pipe. The accomplice of the robbery, who had got into the bank, managed to disappear through another exit. The police group pursues him/gives after him.

Play participants: John Winstain, police sergeant

Caroline Drag, policewoman

Mr Steven Crone, detainee

Taking part in the play as participants, express your point of view and discuss possible actions, in particular:

1. Policeman John Winstain declares to the man that:

• he is detained and is considered/not considered under arrest yet ...

• he (John Winstain) demands the documents identifying the detainee to be produced ...

• he thinks/does not think immediate questioning is necessary ...

• he thinks the detainee is to be under a severe system of discipline after the search and he can see the reason for it ...

2. Policewoman Caroline Drag reminds the detainee of his rights, she wants to find out immediately the reason for his staying on the bank’s roof at such a late hour and wants him of the senselessness of denial (заперечення) and intricating (заплутування) the police.

The detainee names himself Steven Crone, but he cannot produce any documents to identify him, however. He proposes his own version: he found himself on the roof by chance because he wanted to take some photos of the city at night, but he had left the camera behind ... He does not want to answer any further questions of the policemen and declares he will explain everything to the police-officer at the police station. Besides, he objects to putting handcuffs (наручники) on him ... .

Task 15. Write an essay describing the fundamentals of the legal system in any country of your choice.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Task 1. Read and translate the text into Ukrainian:

Two great systems of law

Two great systems of law have spread over the Western world. Civil law, descended from the laws of the Roman Empire, is used by most European countries. Common law, descended from the common law of England, is used in the United States and most of the Commonwealth countries. Both systems of law resist simple definition. Unlike civil law, common law was not embodied in a text or code. Rather, it evolved case after case in court decisions; the common-law judge did not consult an official text before rendering his judgment, but drew instead upon precedents established by other court decisions. Jurists eventually wrote treatises and commentaries on the common law, and although these commanded the respect of the legal profession, they did not constitute law and judges were not compelled to follow them when deciding cases.

Civil law, or code law, is the system of rules, courts, and procedures used in the legal systems of certain Western European countries and their offshoots in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. These systems are distinct from the common law systems of English-speaking countries, but it is not easy to characterize the difference briefly. Civil law is customarily based on Roman law. The difference between civil law and common law systems, however, is not simply the result of Roman influence. Civil law systems also show varying degrees of influence from Germanic law and ecclesiastical, feudal, commercial, and customary law. Moreover, noncivil law systems, such as the English legal system, were also heavily influenced by Roman law in the systematization of the law of contract. It is specifically the authority given to the Corpus Juris Civils of the 6^th century Byzantine (East Roman) emperor Justinian, and not merely Roman influence, that distinguishes civil law systems. (The term civil law is also used to mean private law – for example business law, as opposed to public, or criminal law.)