Assignments

1. State briefly the main function of the text.

2. Explain why it is important for you to know the harmful activities.

3. Name the constitutional moments in the development of international environmental law.

4. Mention why it is important to protect the atmosphere from hazardous substances and activities.

5. Give your arguments for or against providing for liability on the actors of international environmental law.

PART VI Civil Justice

Unit 1 Civil Procedure Section 1 Civil Procedure Law

I. LEAD-IN

1. Think of what you know on the subject of this section considering the following questions and discuss them using the given prompts:

• What is a civil case? Can you think of several key distinctions between criminal and civil cases (think about: the parties, the outcomes and the procedures)? Use the words and phrases given below.

(civil suit, dispute, private individuals, duty, agreement, a breach of, government, to bring a criminal/civil action against, to violate, to commit a crime, to resolve a dispute, to punish, to determine legal rights, to award damages, a party, to direct, to perform a specific act, to refrain from, to prosecute, to sue, to be litigated against)

• The English courts are divided into courts of criminal and civil jurisdiction. Could you name the courts exercising civil jurisdiction? Is there similar situation in the USA and Ukraine?

• What legal issues are governed by Civil Procedure Rules in Ukraine? There are some prompts below, continue the list:

jurisdiction, apprehension, rights and duties of the participants of civil proceeding, legal representation of parties, charging, conduct of a trial, costs, execution of judgment

2. Match the words with the respective phonetic scripts and practice their reading:

/prə'sid ə/ proceedings

/prə'sidiŋz/ plaintiff

/in'f s/ issue

/'ædvəsəri/ adjudicator

/ri'dres/ relief

/'i∫u/ enforce

/'pleintif/ procedure

/ri'lif/ redress

/əd udi'keitə/ adversary

Read the text to search for new information on civil procedure law in Anglo-American legal system:

TEXT 1

Notes:

procedural law – процесуальне право

substantive law – матеріальне право

in personam jurisdiction – особиста підсудність

in rem jurisdiction – предметна підсудність

full faith and credit – визнання та довіра (пункт ст.4 Розділу 1 Конституції США, що передбачає визнання законів та судових рішень одного штату в будь-якому іншому штаті)

Civil procedure law

Procedural law, commonly contrasted with substantive law, is the body of rules governing the court proceedings and the methods of enforcing rights and providing redress of wrongs. Civil procedure involves the principles surrounding the resolution of civil disputes in the courts and the various tools available to the lawyer who must defend or bring a lawsuit. It comprises rules related to jurisdiction, pleading, evidence, appeal, and execution of judgments, representation, costs and other matters. So the purpose of the civil procedure rules is to provide just and effective means by which persons can resolve their disputes.

The Anglo-American judicial system is based on the adversary model that influences the development of particular procedures. As a passive adjudicator of disputes, courts do nothing, neither initiate nor encourage litigation, until one of the parties has called on it through appropriate procedures. The parties control and shape the litigation while the judge sits solely to rule on disputed questions, as presented by the parties, and to apply sanctions properly requested by a party. Issues that have not been raised and objections that have not been made are commonly waived. The case moves forward only in the response to the demands of the parties and the litigants bear the ultimate responsibility for the case.

Procedural rules create the process that is used to decide the merits of a dispute. At the beginning of the process, these rules explain what a plaintiff must do to start a lawsuit and how a legal claim against a defendant can be asserted. Defendants are similarly told how to raise defences and claims once they have been notified of suit. Procedural rules determine what documents must be prepared, what each of them must contain, and how they should be presented to the court and the defendant. Once the lawsuit has been initiated, procedures govern how the parties discover relevant information and evidence, especially when it is in the possession of one's opponent. Rules also govern the conduct of a trial, enforcement procedures, the conduct of appeals, and the imposition of sanctions on rule violators.

There are several procedural stages but before other issues first of all questions about jurisdiction should be resolved that means to choose a court, which has the authority to determine the merits of a dispute and to grant relief. A court has jurisdiction when it has this power both over the subject-matter of the case and over the persons of the plaintiff and defendant or the property that is in dispute. The main types of jurisdiction are: in personam jurisdiction which permits a court to enter a judgment that is personally binding on the defendant (the court has power over the person, therefore judgment will have full faith and credit in all other states and can be easily enforced) and in rem jurisdiction which permits a court to adjudicate the rights of all claimants to a specific piece of property (the court has jurisdiction over property of the other party, thus a judgment can be entered effecting that property and be binding against the defendant even if the defendant is not in the jurisdiction of the court).

II. COMPREHENSION