Vocabulary notes

the Bar Final examination	іспит, що складають при вступі в Колегію Адвокатів
the Law Society Final examination	іспит, що дає право бути членом Товариства юристів (професійного союзу солісітерів)
articled clerk	клерк-стартер (без платні)
finals	випускні іспити

Task 20. Circle a), b) or c) to complete the sentence:

1. The British lawyers are required …

1. to pass professional exams;

2. to work as a clerk for 5 years after graduating from a university;

3. wear black suits

1. The requirements for barristers and solicitors are …

1. identical;

2. partially identical;

3. different

1. In Japan the professional law exams are …

1. difficult to pass;

2. not practiced;

3. easy to pass

1. A barrister must work for years as …

2. an articled clerk;

3. a pupil;

4. an attorney

1. The average salary of an experienced lawyer is …

1. very low;

2. ridiculous;

3. much higher than those of other professionals

Task 21. Match the words with their definitions:

insufficient supervise strengthen outpace requirement salary pass

make or become stronger not enough walk, move very quickly watch and direct work payment to reach a high enough standard to succeed in an examination or test something which is needed or obligatory, necessary

Task 22. Translate the text into English:

Якщо ви вирішили стати юристом, то вам необхідно бути терплячим та працьовитим. Одного університетського ступеню не достатньо. Ви повинні скласти багато професійних іспитів та отримати досвід. Важливо вирішити в якій галузі права ви хотіли б працювати. Когось цікавить адвокатська практика. Це дає право представляти інтереси клієнта в суді. Солісітер за звичай має справу з менш серйозними злочинами, справами про розлучення, дає поради щодо складання заповіту та повернення боргів. Але жодні іспити не допоможуть вам стати прокурором округу США. Ці юристи мають достатню свободу дій та вирішують питання про переслідування судовим порядком.

Вимоги до майбутніх юристів досить високі. Проте, в майбутньому столітті збільшення кількості юристів, можливо, перевищить темпи росту населення.

Task 23. Role play.

Hearing the case in a Civil Court

Situation :The case of establishing affiliation (встановлення батьківства) and paying maintenance (сплачення аліментів) is heard in the county court of Lancashire.

Two women accidentally found out that they were simultaneously in the common-law marriage (у цивільному шлюбі) with one and the same man, Mr. Peter Bradly, a well-to-do banker. As they state, both of them have a child from him.

The court considers claims/suits (позови) of both women.

The first woman’s claim is to make their marriage legal (узаконити шлюб) in court order, to admit Mr. Bradly’s paternity (визнати батьківство) of his child.

The other woman’s claim is to admit Mr. Bradly’s paternity of her child and to prescribe paying proper maintenance of £ 1500 per month...

Play participants: Peter Darby, country judge

Dr Frank Stevens, the plaintiffs’ barrister

Ted Carter, the defendant’s barrister

Mary Graham and Dora West, plaintiffs

Mr. Peter Bradly, defendant

Mr. Brick, Court magistrate (from the community)

Taking part in the play as acting characters of a civil case, give proof of your point of view, in particular:

1. Barrister Ted Carter insists on complete satisfying his clients’ demands and also insists on Mr. Bradly’s moral public blame (осуд)/possibly some other kind of responsibility. Ted Carter gives his arguments...

2. Plaintiff Mary Graham is not so aggressive and she thinks her claim may be satisfied with admitting the paternity by the defendant. She is ready to forgive him and even register officially their matrimony in future...

3. Plaintiff Dora West is in an aggressive mood and, in addition to legal claims, she insists on punishing the defendant ... mainly, prescribing paying maintenance of £ 1500 per month...

4. Defendant Mr. Peter Bradly agrees/does not agree to satisfy the material claims of the plaintiffs (or of one of them). He admits/denies the paternity of Mary Graham’s daughter. He denies Dora West’s claim/suit and demands a medical examination (експертиза) concerning establishing his paternity of Dora West’s daughter...

5. Ted Carter, the defendant’s barrister, insists on his client’s behalf on a medical examination in order to identify the paternity according to Dora West’s suit. His arguments are the following: some new facts have been found out that Dora West was intimate with several men, including an employee of the National Bank, where Mr. Bradly works ... Taking into account a number of facts, Ted Carter agrees to satisfy Mary Graham’s claim, but as to Dora West’s suit, the barrister asks the court to hold an extra inquiry (додаткове розслідування) …

6. Country judge Peter Darby asks the plaintiffs, the defendant, the barristers a number of questions and makes a decision:

1. to satisfy/not to satisfy Mary Graham’s claim...;

2. not to satisfy Dora West’ suit and to make an extra medical examination in order to establish paternity of her daughter by Mr. Bradly/to hold an extra hearing in a month/to satisfy the suit partially...

1. Mr. Brick held a press conference after the court sitting and stated his general approval of the decision of the country court and also marked Mr. Bradly’s behaviour was morally wrong ...

Task 24. Write down the annotation to the following:

The personnel of the law

Judges

Judges are normally appointed from practising barristers, (advocates in Scotland) or solicitors.

High Court judges, circuit judges and recorders are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor. District judges are appointed by the Lord Chancellor. Circuit judges and district judges are appointed through a competitive procedure including an interview before a panel which makes recommendations to the Lord Chancellor. Over the next few years, this procedure for making appointments is to be extended to all judicial posts below the level of the High Court.

Circuit judges, who preside in county courts and the Crown Court, are appointed from barristers or solicitors who have held a right of audience in the Crown Court or county courts for at least ten years or from recorders with at least two years’ experience. Recorders are part-time judges in the Crown Court and county courts and are appointed from among those barristers or solicitors who have held a right of audience in the Crown Court or county courts for at least ten years; they are expected to sit for at least 20 days a year but no more than 50. High Court judges are appointed from practitioners who have held a right of audience in the High Court for at least ten years, or for among circuit judges who have served for at least two years.

Court of Appeal judges are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, usually from among High Court judges. The Law Lords (in the House of Lords) are usually appointed from among Court of Appeal judges or the Scottish equivalent.

In Scotland, Supreme Court judges, sheriffs principal and sheriffs are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Secretary of State for Scotland. They are chosen from advocates or solicitors who have had many years experience as practitioners in the Supreme or sheriff courts.

Lay magistrates in England and Wales need no legal qualifications but are trained to have sufficient knowledge of the law, including the rules of evidence, and of the nature and purpose of sentencing.

The Scottish district court justices of the peace need no legal qualifications, but they too must take part in training. Stipendiary magistrates are legally qualified.

In Northern Ireland all full-time judges and resident magistrates are appointed by the Queen and are drawn from the legal profession. Members of a lay panel who serve in juvenile courts undertake training courses.

The legal profession

The legal profession is divided into two branches: barristers (advocates in Scotland) and solicitors. Barristers and advocates advise on legal problems submitted through solicitors or other recognized professional bodies and present cases in all courts. Solicitors undertake legal business for individual and corporate clients; they can also, after appropriate training, present cases in all courts. Although people are free to conduct their own cases, most people prefer to be legally represented, especially in more serious cases.

Barristers belong to one of the four Inns of Court in England and Wales – Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s Inn, the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple – or the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland. Students study in the Inns of Court School of Law and must complete satisfactorily the skills-based course before being called to the Bar. They must then serve an apprenticeship with a qualified barrister for one year. Barristers must be members of the General Council of the Bar, which upholds professional standards and has certain disciplinary powers. The corresponding body in Scotland is the Faculty of Advocates.

Professional examinations must also be passed before anyone can become a solicitor. After that, a two-year period of work experience, called a training contract, is served in a solicitor’s office. Once qualified in this way, a newly admitted solicitor is supervised for a period of three years. The Law Society in England and Wales is the governing body of the profession and has disciplinary powers over practicing solicitors. It also regulates admission, education and training. A solicitor is bound contractually to his or her client and can be sued for negligence. In Scotland the Law Society of Scotland represents solicitors. The governing body in Northern Ireland.

Task 25. Make up the plans and form questions to the texts from the previous exercise.

Task 26. Write down the resume about two philosophers of law:

Philosophers of law

Sir Thomas More, 1478-1535

Sir Thomas More was an English statesman and writer, known for his religious stance against King Henry VIII that cost him his life. More was born in London and was educated at one of London’s best schools. He later spent two years in the University of Oxford, mastering Latin and undergoing a thorough drilling in formal logic.

Among his important thoughts was that the reasons for crime were to be found in economic and social conditions. He believed that if people lived in a more just and humane society they would behave better. He also thought that punishment should be sensible and that people found guilty should be made to work for the good of the community. His views were far ahead of the time, so that it was only in later centuries that his book Utopia was really understood.

More’s Utopia describes a pagan and communist city-state in which the institutions and policies are entirely governed by reason. The order and dignity of such a state provided a notable contrast with the unreasonable policy of Christian Europe, divided by self-interest and greed for power and riches, which More described in Book 1, written in England in 1516. Among the topics discussed by More in Utopia were penology, state-controlled education, religious pluralism, divorce, euthanasia, and women’s rights. The resulting demonstration of his learning, invention, and wit established his reputation as one of the foremost Humanists. Soon translated into most European languages, Utopia became the ancestor of a new literary genre, the Utopian romance.

More’s History of King Richard III, written in Latin and in English between about 1513 and 1518, is the first masterpiece of English historiography. Though never finished, it influenced succeeding historians. William Shakespeare is indebted to More for his portrait of the tyrant.

More attracted the attention of King Henry VIII. The King made More one of his favourites and often sought his company for philosophical conversations. More became Lord Chancellor in 1529; he was the first layman to hold the post. His fortunes changed, however, he refused to support Henry’s request for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

As a strict Roman Catholic he disapproved of Henry VIII’s attempt to break away from the church in Rome and set up his own Church of England. For failing to accept Henry as the head of the English church he was tried for treason in 1535 and beheaded at the Tower of London. He was made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

John Locke, 1632-1704

The ideas and writing of the seventeenth-century English philosopher John Locke deeply influenced the political outlook of the American colonists. Locke spelled out his political ideas in Two Treatises on Civil Government, first published in 1690. His writings were widely read and discussed in both Europe and America. Locke’s ideas seemed to fit the American colonial experience. Colonial leaders such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison regarded these ideas as political truth. Locke’s ideas became so influential that they have been called the “textbook of the American Revolution”.

Locke reasoned that all people were born free, equal, and independent. They possessed natural rights to life, liberty, and property at the time they lived in a state of nature, before governments were formed. People contracted among themselves to form governments to protect their natural rights. Locke argued that if a government failed to protect these natural rights, the people could change that government. The people had not agreed to be governed by tyrants who threatened their rights but by rulers who defended their rights.

Locke’s ideas were revolutionary in an age when monarchs still claimed they had God-given absolute powers. Locke denied that people were born with an obligation to obey their rulers. Rather, in his Second Treatise on Civil Government, Locke insisted that freedom of people under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it.

Government, then, was legitimate only as long as people continued to consent to it. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, written nearly a century after Locke, reflected Locke’s revolutionary ideas.

Just for fun A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer. *** “You seem to be in some distress,” said the judge to the witness. “Is anything wrong?” “Well, your Honour,” said the witness, “I swore to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, but every time I try, some lawyer objects!” *** A man had been convicted of theft on circumstantial evidence. When the case was sent for appeal, he revealed to his lawyer that he had been in prison at the time of the crime committed. “Good Heavens, man!” said the lawyer. “Why on earth didn’t you reveal that fact at the trial?” “Well,” said the man, “I thought it might prejudice the jury against me.” *** A man accused of stealing a watch was acquitted on insufficient evidence. Outside the courtroom he approached his lawyer and said, “What does that mean – acquitted?” “It means,” said the lawyer, “that the court has found you innocent. You are free to go.” “Does it mean I can keep the watch?” asked the client. *** First juror: “We shouldn’t be here very long. One look at those two fellows convinces me that they are guilty.” Second juror: “Not so loud, you fool! That’s counsel for the prosecution and counsel for the defense!”