Институт права, социального управления и безопасности

Контрольные работы

по английскому языку

для студентов заочной формы обучения

(базовое, второе высшее, ССИ)

/
WHAT IS LAW?
I think the first duty of society is justice.
Alexander Hamilton

° Vocabulary

EXERCISE 1. Fill in the table according to the given example. Not all forms will be

used for each word. Use dictionary, if necessary. Translate the words into Russian.

Verb /

Noun

(thing or concept)

/

Noun

(person)

/

Adjective

settle
behave
enforce / enforcement
concern
implicate
limit / limitation / limited
implement
administer / administrator
involve
dispute / dispute / disputant / disputatious
litigate / litigation / litigant / litigious

EXERCISE 2. Choose the correct word from the list to complete each sentence.

Translate the sentences into Russian.

disputes
settled
enforced
behavior
administer / settlement
concerns
implication
limit
involved / implicated
enforcement
implemented
litigation

1.  The two companies ______their dispute out of court.

2.  ______between Russian organizations and foreign firms are often settled by Arbitration Commission.

3.  Certain kinds of disputes should be referred for ______to arbitration.

4.  Society has a right to protection from illegal ______.

5.  The courts ______justice by hearing cases.

6.  Civil law ______disputes among citizens within a country.

7.  He smiled, but the ______was that he didn’t believe me.

8.  The police found the letter which ______him in the robbery.

9.  He refused to be ______.

10.  We must ______ourselves to an hour.

11.  The committee’s ideas will be ______immediately.

12.  ______is legal contest.

13.  A new training for law ______officers was organized.

14.  Laws made by governments are ______against all citizens.

EXERCISE 3. Make these words negative by adding the appropriate prefix:

in, un, im, il, dis.

__legal
__formal
__limited
__moral
__necessary / __lawful
__fair
__just
__ability
__reasonable

° Reading and language study

What is Law?

(I) In the opinion of many people, the law is a necessary evil that should be used only when everyday, informal ways of settling disputes break down. If our neighbor plays loud music late at night, we probably try to discuss the matter with him rather than consulting the police, lawyers or the courts. Only when a neighbor refuses to behave reasonably we start thinking about legal implications of everyday activities.

(II) The English word “law” refers to limits upon various forms of behavior. So, a law is a statement or rule that tells us what we may or may not do. In all societies, relations between people are regulated by laws. Some of them are customs, that is, informal rules of social and moral behavior. Some are rules we accept if we belong to particular social institutions, such as, religious, educational and cultural groups. And some are precise laws made by governments and enforced against all citizens within their power.

(III) What motives do governments have in making and enforcing laws? Social control is one purpose. Public law concerns disputes between citizens and the state or between one state and another. Private law concerns disputes among citizens within a country. Another purpose is the implementation of justice. Justice is a concept that most people feel is very important but few are able to define. Sometimes a just decision is simply a decision that most people feel is fair. It is often said that justice is blind. It means that the law is not concerned with personalities or whether litigants are powerful or weak, good or bad or black or white. Bejamin Disraeli (1804-1881) said: “Justice is truth in action”. Justice is certainly not deaf and will listen to any reasonable claim. The courts administer justice by hearing cases. Law is also used as a mechanism for social change. For instance, at various times laws have been passed to inhibit social discrimination and improve the quality of individual life in matters of health, education, and welfare.

(IV) It seems that people all over the world are becoming more accustomed to using legal means to regulate their relations with each other. Companies employ experts to ensure that their contracts are lawful whenever they do business. Non-industrialized tribes in South Africa use lawyers to stop governments from destroying the rainforests where they live. Ordinary citizens can nowadays challenge the decisions of their governments in courts of law. When it helps people to reach just agreements across social, economic and even international barriers, law seems a good thing. However, when it involves time and money and highlights people’s inability to cooperate informally, law seems to be an evil but a necessary one that everyone should have a basic knowledge of.

(Adapted from Law Today by Richard Powell)

EXERCISE 3. Using the paragraph reference given in brackets, find in the text the English equivalents for these Russian legal terms and expressions.

-  право, закон (I)

-  разрешать спор, конфликт (I)

-  юрист, адвокат, юрисконсульт (I)

-  вести себя разумно (I)

-  юридическое значение (I)

-  регулироваться законами (II)

-  применять законы ко всем гражданам (II)

-  осуществление правосудия (III)

-  отправлять правосудие (III)

-  сдерживать социальную дискриминацию (III)

-  благосостояние, социальное обеспечение (III)

-  законные средства (IV)

-  оспаривать решение (IV)

-  справедливое, обоснованное соглашение (IV)

EXERCISE 4. Translate the text WHAT IS LAW? into Russian.

/ TYPES OF LAW
Law is the set of rules or principles dealing with a specific area of a legal system.
Black’s Law Dictionary

° Vocabulary

EXERCISE 1. Fill in the table according to the given example. Not all forms will be used for each word. Use dictionary, if necessary. Translate the words into Russian.

Verb /

Noun

(thing or concept)

/

Noun

(person)

/

Adjective

proceed / procedure / procedural
injure
require / requisite
offend / offender
prosecute
treat
act
harm
victimize / victimization / victim / victimized
prohibit
codify
judge

EXERCISE 2. Choose the correct word from the list to complete each sentence. Translate the sentences into Russian.

offender
procedure
prohibited
victim
injured / harm
requirements
codes
treatment / judgment
action
prosecution
codified
Act

1.  She was ______badly in the car accident.

2.  Girls need special ______while in prison.

3.  A person harmed by a crime is a ______.

4.  Writing a cheque is quite a simple ______.

5.  Civil law systems are ______systems, and the basic law is found in ______.

6.  You will have to use your ______.

7.  A person who has broken the law is an ______.

8.  There are some special ______for those who enter the faculty of law.

9.  A famous lawyer was asked to appear for the ______.

10.  The sale of narcotics is ______in our country.

11.  A criminal act may cause ______to some individual.

12.  Parliament has passed an ______prohibiting the sale of narcotics.

13.  A civil or criminal judicial proceeding is ______.

° Reading and language study

Types of Law

(I) The content of law may be categorized as substantive and procedural. Substantive laws consist of rights, duties, and prohibitions administered by courts—which behaviors are to be allowed and which are prohibited (such as prohibition against murder or the sale of narcotics). Procedural laws are rules, concerning how substantive laws are to be administered, enforced, changed, and used by players in the legal system (such as filing charges, electing a jury, presenting evidence in court or drawing up a will).

(II) A distinction is also made between public law and private law. Public law is concerned with the structure of government, the duties and powers of officials, and the relationship between the individual and the state. It includes such subjects as constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law and procedure, and law relating to the proprietary powers of the state and its political subdivisions. Private law is concerned with both substantive and procedural rules governing relationships between individuals (the law of torts or private injuries, contracts, property, wills, inheritance, marriage, divorce, adoption, and the like).

(III) *A more familiar distinction is between civil law and criminal law. Civil law, as private law, consists of a body of rules and procedures tended to govern the conduct of individuals in their relationships with others. Violations of civil statutes, called torts, are private wrongs for which the injured individual may seek redress in the courts for the harm he or she experienced. In most cases, some form of payment is required from the offender to compensate for the injury he or she has caused. Criminal law is concerned with the definition of crime and the prosecution and penal treatment of offenders. Although a criminal act may cause harm to some individual, crimes are regarded as offenses against the state or "the people." A crime is a "public," as opposed to a "private," wrong. It is the state, not the harmed individual that takes action against the offender. Occasionally, a criminal action may be followed up by a civil suit such as in a rape case where the victim may seek financial compensation in addition to criminal sanctions.

(VI) A distinction can also be made between civil law and common law. In this context, civil law refers to legal systems whose development was greatly influenced by Roman law, a collection of codes compiled in the Corpus Juris Civilis (Code Civil). Civil-law systems are codified systems, and the basic law is found in codes. These are statutes that are enacted by national parliaments. France is an example of a civil law system. The civil code of France, which first appeared in 1804, is called the Code Napoleon and embodies the civil law of the country. By contrast, common law resisted codification. Law is not based on acts of parliament but on case law, which relies on precedents set by judges to decide a case. Thus, it is "judge-made" law as distinguished from legislation or "enacted" law. *

EXERCISE 7. Using the paragraph reference given in brackets, find in the text the English equivalents for these Russian legal terms and expressions.

-  материальное право (I)

-  процеcсyaльное право (I)

-  выдвигать обвинение (I)

-  публичное право (II)

-  частное право (II)

-  проприетарные, вещно-правовые полномочия (II)

-  гражданское право (III)

-  уголовное право (III)

-  совокупность норм права (III)

-  потерпевший, получивший телесные повреждения (III)

-  добиваться, требовать возмещения, удовлетворения (III)

-  причинить вред (III)

-  возбудить судебное дело(III)

-  уголовный судебный процесс (III)

-  гражданский иск (III)

-  система общего права (IV)

-  система гражданского права (IV)

-  прецедентное право (IV)

EXERCISE 8. Translate the text TYPES OF LAW into Russian.