Exercises:

1. Match the verbs below to their Russian equivalents:

1. litigate a. влиять, воздействовать

2. punish b. распределять

3. distribute c. судиться, решать вопросы в суде

4. relinquish d. наказывать

5. affect e. отказываться от судебного разбирательства

6. determine f. вести себя

7. conduct g. определять

2. Give opposites to the following words:

1. surrender –

2. lawyer –

3. complex –

4. fair –

5. system –

6. law –

7. restricted –

3. Give English equivalents to the following word groups using the “word spider” below:

Права человека, право на труд, политические права, право на поселение, личные права, право собственности, гражданские права, право на образование, основные права.

basic civil human personal political

TO OF

education work property settlement

4. Scan the text above once more and fill in the following scheme:

Definitions Functions

1.

r…

g… 2.

p…

r…

h…

2. Law and Society.

Key Words:

Society, to provide (for), to provide with, safety, safe, safely, to rob, to kidnap, to murder, self-protection, to introduce law.

Law provides people with safety. If there were not law, one couldn’t go out in broad daylight without the fear of being robbed, kidnapped or murdered. It’s obvious to everyone that in a community such as the one in which we live a kind of law is necessary to try to prevent bad people from doing bad things. There are far, far more good people in the world than bad, but there are enough of bad to make law necessary in the interests of everyone. Members of every society have made laws for themselves for self-protection. Otherwise it would have meant that the stronger man could do whatever he liked with the weaker and bad men could terrorize the others.

Another reason to introduce law in society is that people whether bad or good need some rules to feel safe in various life situations. For instance we need traffic rules to feel safe on the roads. That is why there is a particular traffic law. We also need some rules to feel safe in business. That is why there are also some special laws in the society for running fair business, e.g. contract law.

One can’t say that all the laws we have are perfect. To produce perfect laws is not simple and may be even impossible but it’s better to have imperfect laws than no laws at all. That is why every country tries 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 to have imperfect laws is in any case better than lawlessness and anarchy.

Notes:

1. …to try to prevent bad people from doing bad things – попытаться помешать плохим людям делать плохие дела

2. It’s obvious to everyone… - всем ясно (для всех очевидно)

3. a kind of law – какой-то вид закона (нечто вроде закона)

4. e.g.= lat. exempli gratia – например