- •Е. Н. Пушкина law and justice закон и правосудие
- •603134, Г. Н. Новгород, ул. Костина, 2 "б"
- •Содержание
- •Предисловие
- •Unit 1. Constitution
- •The Concept and History of Constitution
- •British Constitution
- •Британская Конституция
- •Unit 2. Constitution
- •Characteristics of Constitutions
- •The Constitution of the usa
- •Unit 3. Law-Making Process
- •Why Bring Laws In?
- •Types of Bills
- •Unit 4. Law-Making Process
- •Preparatory Stages of a Government Bill
- •Принятие Нового Закона
- •Making New Law
- •Unit 5. Courts and Law
- •Appealing to History...
- •Justice and Law
- •Kinds of Law in the United States
- •1. Constitutional Law
- •2. Statutory Law
- •3. Administrative Law
- •4. Case Law
- •Unit 6. Courts and Law
- •English Courts Today
- •Farewell to the Traditional System of Justice or Just a New Supreme Court?
- •What Is a Court?
- •New Arrangements Require New Titles
- •Unit 7. Legal Profession
- •The Nature of Legal Profession
- •Solicitors and Barristers – See the Difference
- •Lawyers' Work
- •Unit 8. Legal Profession
- •Barristers and Solicitors - Education and Career
- •It's Useful to Know
- •Business Lawyer
- •Unit 9. Legal Profession
- •Merging of the Legal Profession
- •Стирание граней между барристерами и солиситорами
- •Law Office
- •2. Small Law Firms
- •3. Mid-Sized Law Offices
- •4. Large Law Offices
- •Unit 10. Legal Profession
- •Call to Merge 'Two-Tier' Legal System
- •Types of Lawyer Titles
- •Scientific vocabulary Англо-русские обороты научной речи
- •The theme of the research Сообщение о теме и содержании работы
- •Aims and Tasks Цели и задачи работы
- •Methods and Techniques Используемые методы
- •Base Data Исходные моменты
- •Interpretation Интерпретация
- •Characteristic features of the subject of the research Основные признаки и характеристика предмета исследования
- •Comparison and collation Сравнение и сопоставление
- •Correspondence and divergence Соответствия и расхождения
- •Connection; cause-and-effect relationship Связь, зависимость, влияние
- •Results Результаты исследования
- •Conclusions Выводы. Заключения
- •Evaluation Оценка
- •Application Область применения
- •Specific features of legal texts Особенности юридической речи
- •Media discourse
Unit 2. Constitution
Task 1. Read the text and translate the words and expressions given in bold type in writing.
Characteristics of Constitutions
Every state has a constitution, since every state functions on the basis of certain rules and principles. It has often been asserted that the United States has a written constitution but that the constitution of Great Britain is unwritten. This is true, but only in the sense that in the United States there is a formal document called the Constitution, whereas there is no such document in Great Britain. In fact, however, many parts of the British constitution exist in written form, whereas important aspects of the American constitution are wholly unwritten. The leading enactments of the British constitution are the Bill of Rights (1689), the Act of Settlement (1700-1701), the Parliament Act of 1911, the Successive Representation of the People Acts (which extended the suffrage). There are also the statutes dealing with the structure of the courts, the various local government acts, and many others. These are not ordinary statutes, even though they were adopted in the ordinary legislative way, and they are not codified within the structure of a single orderly document.
Whether "long" or "short", written constitutions can concern themselves exclusively or prevalently with the organization of government or deal extensively with the rights of the people and with the goals of governmental action. The U.S. Constitution is a model of brevity (about 7,000 words). Just a little longer are most of the Western countries' constitutions. On the other hand, the constitution of India extends to hundreds of pages. Merely "organizational" constitutions (i.e., documents containing no guarantees for rights) have become very rare.
Written constitutions are said to be "normative" when their binding principles are more or less all observed in the actual operations of the political system. This applies to the constitutions of the United States, Canada, and of some western European countries. Other constitutions are said to be "nominal," because they are largely or in substantial parts disregarded and do not provide insight into the real functioning of the system. This is often the case with constitutions of rapidly developing countries and of countries ruled by a one-person or a one-party dictatorship.
Constitutions, written or unwritten, must be distinguished according to whether they are "rigid" or "flexible." Rigid are those constitutions at least some part of which cannot be modified in the ordinary legislative way. Flexible are those whose rules can all be modified through the simple procedure by which statutes are enacted. The United States has a rigid constitution, because proposals to amend the constitutional document adopted in 1788 can only be added through a complex procedure of majority vote in each house of Congress. Great Britain has a flexible constitution because all of its constitutional institutions and rules can be modified by an act of Parliament.
Task 2. Answer the following questions on the text.
What is the difference between the constitutions of the US and GB?
What do constitutions of different countries concern themselves with?
What is the point of difference between normative and nominal constitutions?
How do rigid constitutions differ from flexible ones?
Task 3. Render the following text into English.
Конституция – это основной закон государства, определяющий его общественное и государственное устройство, порядок и принципы образования представительных органов власти, избирательную систему, основные права и обязанности граждан. Конституция – основа всего текущего законодательства.
Конституция – это совокупность актов или конституционных обычаев, которые:
провозглашают и гарантируют права и свободы человека и гражданина;
определяют основы общественного строя, форму правления и территориального устройства, основы организации центральных и местных органов власти.
Конституция является главным источником системы права в государстве.
Конституции различают:
по форме: на кодифицированные, некодифицированные и конституции смешанного типа;
по способу внесения изменений: на гибкие и жесткие;
по срокам действия: на постоянные и временные.
Конституционное право – отрасль права; система правовых норм, закрепляющих и регулирующих группу общественных отношений, которые обуславливают:
социально-экономическое, политическое и территориальное устройство государства;
осуществление основных прав и свобод человека и гражданина;
систему государственной власти;
систему внутреннего самоуправления.
Task 4. Read the following text focusing on Jefferson's notes on the Constitution draft and their significance for US legislature and political development.