Comprehension Check

1. Look through the text and say whether the following statements are false or true. 1. In England a person may be guilty of murder if he killed someone intentionally.

2. Malice aforethought means that a person killed someone because of recklessness.

3. The prosecution doesn't need to prove actus reus and mens rea elements of the crime.

2. In paragraph 1 find the sentences to prove that in different countries there are different attitudes towards crime.

3. Reread paragraph 2 and 3 and name the theme, which connects them. Match the terms and their definitions. Consult the glossary if necessary.

1. Robbery	a) the dishonest appropriation of property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it permanently;
2. Burglary	b) an admission in court by an accused person that he has committed the offence;
3. Theft	c) crime of entering a building without the permission of the owner, with the intention of stealing;
4. Guilt	d) the crime of using force or causing fear force in order to steal.

4. On the basis of paragraphs 4 and 5 expand the following statements. Add information from the text.

1. Actus Reus is the criminal act itself.

2. Mens Rea is the criminal state of mind.

3. Malice aforethought is the state of mind required for a person to be guilty of murder.

Give your own example for each of these statements.

4. Look through paragraphs 6 and 7 and try to answer the following questions.

1. In what cases a defendant can be found guilty?

2. What is recklessness? How is it taken into account during the prosecution in your country?

3. What is the role of a substantial cause? In what circumstances is the case in the court over?

Written Practice

1. Make the following sentences shorter, retaining the main idea.

1. A visitor to a foreign country can be sure that stealing, physically attacking someone or damaging his or her property will be unlawful.

2. Even where there is a precise statute, the case law interpreting the statute

3. may be very important since the circumstances of each crime may be very different.

4. The court can never know exactly what was in the head of the killer at the time of the killing, so it has the difficult task of deciding what his intentions must have been.

5. Several recent cases have considered the problem of whether recklessness means acting even though you know there is a high risk of danger or acting without thinking about risks which a reasonable person ought to consider.

6. Render the following into Russian. What is the Purpose of the Trial?

If the parties can’t agree on how to settle a case on their own, or if a criminal defendant pleads not guilty, the court will decide the dispute through a trial. The purpose of a trial is to find out whether the criminal defendant committed the crime charged or, in a civil case, whether the defendant failed to fulfill a legal duty to the plaintiff.

If the parties choose to have a jury trial, determining the facts is the task of the petit jury. If they decide not to have a jury and to leave the fact-finding task to the judge, the trial is called a bench trial. In either kind of trial, the judge decides what legal standards to apply. If there is a jury, the judge tells the jury what the law is.