Vocabulary.

1. a clause to the Constitution – статья конституции

2. cop (сленг) - полицейский

3. P.D. = Police Department

4. identifications – документы, удостоверяющие личность

5. draft card – военный билет

6. plausible – правдоподобный

7. Desk Sergeant – дежурный сержант

8. mug (сленг) – грабитель, разбойник

9. Don’t get smart! – Не слишком умничай!

10. to be at stake – находиться в опасности

11. to comprehend – понимать, постигать, охватывать, включать

12. to consolidate – укреплять, консолидировать, объединять

13. to emphasize – придавать особое значение, подчеркивать

14. to come into being – появляться, возникать

15. to exert – оказывать давление, влиять , напрягать (силы), осуществлять

16. to combat – сражаться, бороться

17. encroachment - вторжение, нарушение

18. cursed – проклятый, отвратительный

19. draught - сквозняк

20. a bodyguard – личная охрана, эскорт, телохранитель

21. indignantly – с негодованием, возмущенно

22. to holler – кричать, вопить, окликать, просить пощады

23. chaplain – священник; капеллан, военный или судовой священник

24. to be incensed at smb’s remarks - прийти в ярость от чьих-л. замечаний

Task 1. Read and translate the text:

The executive departments

The day-to-day enforcement and administration of federal lws is in the hands of the various executive departmnts, created by Congress to deal with specific areas of national and international affairs. The heads of the departments, chosen by the president and approved by the Senate, form a council of advisers generally known as the president's «Cabinet». In additionto 14 departments, there are a number of staff organizations grouped into the Executive Office of the President. These include the White House staff, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, thwe Council of Economic Advisers, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Office of Science and Technology.

The Constitution makes no provision for a presidential Cabinet. It does provide that the president may ask opinions, in writing, from the principal officer in each of the executive departments on any subject in their area of responsibility, but it does not name the departments nor describe their duties. Similarly, there are no specific constitutional qualifications for service in the Cabinet.

The Cabinet developed outside the Constitution as a matter of practical necessity, for even in George Washington's day it waqs an absolute impossibility for the president to discharge his duties without advice and assistance. Cabinets are what any particular president makes them. Some presidents have relied heavily on them for advice, others lightly, and some few have largely ignored them. Whether or not Cabinet members act as advisers, they retain the responsibility for directing the activities of the government in spcific areas of concern.

Each department has thousands of employees, with offices throughout the country as well as in Washington. The departments are divided into divisons, bureaus, offics and services, each with specific duties.

Department Of Defense.

Headquartered in the Pentagon, the “world’s largest office building,” the Department of Defense (DOD) is responsible for all matters relating to the nation’s military security. It provides the military forces of the United States, which consists of about two million men and women on active duty. They are backed, in case of emergency, by 2.5 million members of state reserve components, known as the National Guard. In addition, about one million civilian employees serve in the Defense Department in such areas as research, intelligence communications, mapping and international security affairs. The National Security Agency (NSA) also comes under the direction of the secretary of defense. The department directs the separately organized military departments of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, as well as each service academy and the National War College, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and several specialized combat commands. DOD maintains forces overseas to meet treaty commitments, to protect the nation’s outlying territories and commerce, and to provide air combat and support forces. Nonmilitary responsibilities include flood control, development of oceanographic resources and management of oil reserves

Department Of Education.

The Department of Education absorbed most of education programs previously conducted by the Department of Health. Education and Welfare, as well as programs that had been handled by six other agencies. The department establishes policy for and administers more than 150 federal aid-to-education programs, including student loan programs, programs for migrant workers, vocational programs, and special programs for the handicapped. The Department of Education also partially supports the American Printing House for the Blind: Gallaudet University, established to provide a liberal higher education for deaf persons: the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, part of the Rochester (New York) Institute of Technology, designed to educate deaf students within a college campus, but planned primarily for hearing students; and Howard University in Washington, D.C., a comprehensive university which accepts students of all races, but concentrates on educating black Americans.

Department Of Justice

The attorney general, the chief law officer of the federal government, is in charge of the Department of Justice. The department represents the U.S. government in legal matters and courts of law, and renders legal advice and opinion, upon request, to the president and to the heads of the executive departments. Its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the principle law enforcement body, and it Immigration and Naturalization Service administers immigration laws. A major agency within the department is the Drug Enforcement Administration. (DEA), which administers narcotics and controlled substances laws, and tracks down major illicit drug trafficking organizations. The Justice Department also gives aid to local police forces. In addition, the departmeent directs U.S. district attorneys and marshals throughout the country, supervises federal prisons and other penal institutions, and investigates and reports tothe president on petitions for paroles and pardons. The Justice Department is also linked to INTERPOL, the Internationl Criminal Police Orgnization, charged with promoting mutual assistnce between law enforcement agencies in 146 countries.

Department of Labor

The Department of Labor promotes the welfare of wage earners in the United States, helps improve working conditions and fosters good relations between labor and management. It administers more than 130 federal labor laws through such agencies as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Employment Standards Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administrtion. Among its responsibilities are: guaranteeing workers' rights to safe and healthy working conditions; establishing minimum hourly wages and overtime pay; prohibiting employment discrimination; and providing for unemployment insurance and compensation for on-the-job injury. It also protects workers' pension rights, sponsors job training programs and helps workers find jobs. Its Bureau of Labor Statistics monitors and reports changes in employment, prices and other national economic measuremeents. For job seekers, thee department makes special efforts to help older workers , youths, minorities, women and the handicapped.

Department of State

The Department of State advises the president, who has overall responsibility for formulating and executing the foreign policy of the United States. The department assesses American overseas interests, makes recommendations on policy and future action, and takes necessary steps to carry out established policy. It maintains contracts and relations between the United States and foreign countries, advises the president on recognition of new foreign countrie and governments, negotiates treaties and agreements with foreign nations, and speaks for the United States in the United Nations and in more than 50 other major international organizations. As of 1988, the department supervised 141 embassies and 113 missions or consulates in foreign nations.

Task 2. Find information about other executive departments, discuss them in class.

Task 3. Read and translate the text:

The essence of law.

If we are to understand the essence of law, we must comprehend the fact that both the state and law appeared with the emergence of private property, of the division of society into classes and of the exploitation of man by man. In order to safeguard and consolidate their positions, the ruling classes laid down the rules of behavior to be observed and fulfilled by all members of society.

It is emphasized that the essence of law, its origin cannot be understood if law is considered in isolation from economic and social conditions. It is society through the state that creates law, but law in its turn exercises influence on the socio-economic system. Law operates as an important factoring consolidating the exiting social relations and in some cases in promoting the establishment of new relations, whenever the necessary material conditions come into being. The more complex the economic mechanism of a society organized as a state, the stronger is the influence it exerts in many concrete directions.

In a developed state the sphere in which the law operates is quite extensive. It embraces all the spheres of production, distribution and exchange. Law fixes the forms of administration and the constitutional system, and determines the legal status of citizens and the activity of the state mechanism (state law, administrative law). It fixes the existing property relations and operates as a regulator of the measure and forms of distribution of labour and its products among the members of society (civil law, labour law). Finally, the law lays down the measures for combating encroachment on the state system, the existing order of social relations, together with the forms in which this is done (criminal law, procedural law, and corrective labour law).

Task 4. Translate the following word combinations:

to understand the essence of law; the emergence of private property; to safeguard and consolidate the position; to depend on the existing social relations; to promote the establishment of new relations; to exert influence; measures for combating encroachment; distribution of labour and its products.

Task 5. Find in the text the English for:

эксплуатация человека человеком; правила поведения; правящие классы; влиять на социально-экономическую систему; необходимые материальные условия; в развитом государстве; существующий порядок; гражданское право; уголовное право; административное право; процессуальное право; исправительно-трудовое право.

Task 6. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. Чем лучше люди знают законы, тем меньше они их нарушают.

2. Нелегко понять сущность права.

3. Чтобы понять сущность права, мы должны понять тот факт, что государство и право появились с возникновением частной собственности.

4. Право нельзя рассматривать отдельно от социально-экономических условий.

5. В развитом государстве сфера действия права обширна.

6. Право определяет правовой статус граждан.

7. Правила поведения, выработанные правящим классом, соблюдаются и выполняются всеми членами общества.

Проблема современности – это проблема мира и войны.

Task 7. Answer the following questions:

1. When did law appear?

2. How was law created?

3. What role does the law play in the existing social relations?

4. In what spheres does the law operate in a developed state?

5. What spheres does the law embrace?

6. What does it fix?

7. How does the law help the state to combat criminal encroachments?

Task 8. Read and translate the text and explain the meaning of the terms ‘lobbyism’ and “lobbyist’.

(Often discussing Congress of the USA a third chamber is mentioned. The third chamber is a specific American phenomenon – lobbies).

The Lobbyists

In the previous centuries people who wanted to hand in petition or to discuss some project went to Washington, to the Capitol and there met the Congressmen from their states. The tradition is still alive, only today it is big corporations, social organizations, foreign diplomats, etc. Who try to influence law-making in their favour. This is done with the help of lobbyists who arrange meetings with Congressmen, and through bribery and persuasion make them vote for measures favourable to the group they represent. Practically lobbyism (backstage influencing of legislation) has become legal, it means, that the passing of a bill can be prevented if it does not suit the interests of a definite group of Big Business.

The delicate art of influencing legislation has moved a great distance from the days when votes were bought with black satchels full of money. Today’s successful lobbyists are more likely to be smooth professionals. But if lobbying techniques have grown complicated, the name of the game is still the same: special interest. Lobbyists may call themselves legislative counsels or Washington representatives, but they are still hired to sell their clients’ special interests.

The lobbyists’ role in government, to hear them tell it, is greatly misunderstood. They only exercise their Constitutional right of petition. The First Amendment guarantees “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. Apparently the Founding Fathers did not foresee that this amendment would be so distorted.

Although a 1946 law requires all lobbyists to register with the clerks of both chambers of Congress, and to give annual reports of the money used for this or that bill, the most effective lobbyists seldom do. They try to remain, if possible, invisible. They do not even like to call themselves lobbyists. But more and more people realize that legislation is shaped as much by the hidden influences as by the public debates.

Note:

1. lobby – кулуары

2. backstage – закулисный

3. satchel – сумка, ранец

4. techniques – приемы

Task 9. Say whether each of the following sentences is true or false. Correct the false sentences to make them true.

According to the text, lobbyists …

1. by means of different techniques make Congressmen vote for measures favourable to the group they represent.

2. follow the old tradition of petitioning the Government.

3. can seldom prevent Congressmen from passing a bill.

4. are mainly real professionals.

5. are often called legislative counsels.

6. always register with the clerks of the both chambers of Congress.

7. influence the legislation due to their invisible efforts.

Task 10. Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. What is your personal understanding about the fact that law is necessary in every community?

2. Do you believe that however hard people try, laws are always in perfect?

3. What do you think about this statement: agree or disagree?

Laws are not for ordinary people, they are for lawyers.

LAW AND SOCIETY.

Mr. Jones, having murdered his wife, was burying here in the garden one night, when his neighbour, hearing the noise, asked him what he was doing.

“Just burying the cat,” said Mr. Jones.

“Funny sort of time to bury a cat,” said the neighbor.

“Funny sort of cat,” said said Mr. Jones.

Now it is evident to everyone that, in a community such as the one in which we live, some kind of law is necessary to prevent people like Mr. Jones from killing their wives. When the world was at a very primitive stage, there was no such law, and, if a man chose to kill his wife or if a woman succeeded in killing her husband, that was their own business and no one interfered officially.

If it were not for the law, you could not go out in broad daylight without the fear of being kidnapped, robbed or murdered. There are far, far more good people in the world than bad, but there are enough of the bad to make law necessary in the interests of everyone.

There is no difficulty in understanding this, but it is just as important to understand that law is not necessary just because there are bad people in the world. If we were all as good as we ought: to be, laws would still be necessary. If we never told lies, never took anything that never belong to us, never omitted to do anything that we ought to do and never did anything that we ought not to do, we should still require a set of rules of behavior, in other words laws, to enable us to live in any kind of satisfactory state.

Because none of us is always good and some of us are bad, or at any rate we have our bad moments, and so the law has to provide for all kinds of possibilities.

In the absence of law you could only rely upon the law of the jungle, that is to say, you could be safe and sound if you are strong and big or have a well-armed bodyguard.

Every country tries, therefore, to provide laws, which will help its people to live safely and as comfortably as possible. This is not at all an easy thing to do, and no country has been successful in producing laws, which are entirely satisfactory. But we are far better off with the imperfect laws which we have, than if we had none at all.

Task 11 . Read and translate the text.

The Law

“I definitely do not like the law”, said Simple, using the word with a capital letter to mean police and court combined.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because the Law beats my head. Also because the Law will give a white man One Year and give me Ten,” tried to explain Simple.

‘But if it wasn’t for the Law,” I said, “you would not have any protection.”

“Protection/’ yelled Simple. “The Law always protects a white man. But if I protect, the Law says, “What do you want, Negro?” Only most white policemen do not say’ Negro’.”

“Oh, I see. You are talking about the police, not the Police, not the Law in general.”

“Yes, I am talking about the police.”

‘You have a bad opinion of the law,” I said.

“The Law has a bad opinion of me,” said Simple. “The Law thinks all Negroes are in the criminal class. The Law stops in the street and shakes me down – me, a working man. I do not like the police.”

“You must be talking about the way-down-home-in-the South Law,” I said, “not up North.”

‘I am talking about the Law all over America,’ said Simple, “North or South. So far as I am concerned, the police is no good. It was the Law that started the Harlem riots by shooting the soldier-boy.”

“Listen,” I said, “you are generalizing too much. Not all cops are bad. There are some decent policemen – particularly in New York. Well, anyhow, if it wasn’t for the police, who would keep you from being robbed?’

“I have been robbed, “said Simple, smiling indignantly, “and there was not a cop to be found anywhere, I could not even find a P.D. car.”

“Did you report being robbed?”

“I did the first time, but not after that. Those policemen down at the police station looked at me like I were the robber. They asked me for all kind of identifications, from my driving license to my draft card. That was during the war. I told them, “How can I show you my draft card when it was in my pocket book and my pocket book has been stolen?” They wanted to lock me up for having no draft card.”

“That does not sound plausible.”

“It may not sound plausible – but that’s how it was,” said Simple. “I told the Desk Sergeant that those mugs had taken Eighty Dollars off of me at the point of a gun. The Desk Sergeant asked where I got Eighty Dollars. I showed him my hands. I said, “See these here calluses? I work for my money, “I said. “I do not steal.” The Desk Sergeant hollered, “Don’t get smart, boy, or I’ll throw you into jail. That’s why I wouldn’t go back to any police station to report anything since then.”

“Maybe you’ll be better treated next time.”

“Not as long as I am black,” said Simple.

“You look at everything; I regret to say, in terms of black and white.”

“So does the Law.”

Task 12. Answer the following questions:

1. How did Simple use the word “Law”? Why does he dislike it?

2. What does the Law think of Negroes?

3. What facts mentioned by Simple prove that in the eye of the Law a white man differs from a Negro?

4. What happened to Simple when he was robbed during the war?

5. How was Simple treated at the police station?

6. Why did the Desk Sergeant threaten to send Simple to jail?

7. Why has Simple avoided going to any police station to report anything ever since that day?

8. In what terms does the Law look at everything?