Уровень II. Тексты для юристов
Текст 1. THE AIMS OF LEGAL EDUCATION
Текст 2. LAW
Текст 3. SOURCES OF MODERN LAW
Текст 4.. WHAT IS LAW?
Текст 1. The aims of legal education
Legal education generally has a number of theoretical and practical aims, not all of which are pursued simultaneously. The emphasis placed on various objectives differs form period to period, place to place, and even from one teacher to another. One aim is to make the student familiar with legal concepts and institutions and with characteristic modes of reasoning. All lawyers must become acquainted too with the processes of making law, settling disputes, and regulating the legal profession. They must study the structure of government and the organization of courts of law, including the system of appeals and other adjudicating bodies.
Another aim of legal education is the teaching of law in its social, economic, political, and scientific contexts. While law schools have never ignored the social context of their subject, Anglo-American legal education has always been less interdisciplinary than that of continental Europe. With the development of a more or less scientific approach to social studies in the 20th century, however, this is changing. Some law schools appoint economists, psychologists, or sociologists to their staffs, while others require or permit their students to take courses outside the law school as part of their word toward a degree.
The graduating law student is not expected to have studied the whole body of substantive law. He is, however, expected to be familiar with the general principles of the main branches of law.
The chief materials are the same everywhere: codes (where these exist), reports of court decisions, legislation, government and other public reports, institutional books (in civil - law countries), textbooks, and articles in learned periodicals. The aim is not so much that the student should remember «the law» as that he should understand basic concepts and methods and become sufficiently familiar with a law library to carry out the necessary research on any legal problem that may come his way.
Активная лексика: legal education, to pursue, aim, mode, law, lawyer, structure, government, science, scientific, approach, social studies, staff, degree, code, to exist, legislation, civil law, research, to differ.
Найдите в тексте эквиваленты следующих словосочетаний:
юридическое образование, практическая цель, преследовать цель, ознакомить студента с..., процесс создания закона, улаживание споров, структура правительства, организация судов, закон в его социальном и научном контексте, научный подход, принять в штат, заниматься вне учебного заведения, общие принципы, основные ветви права, решения суда, осуществлять необходимые исследования, юридические проблемы.
Ответьте па вопросы по тексту:
- What are two aims of legal education given in the text?
- What must all lawyers become acquainted with?
- They must know the structure of the government, mustn't they?
- What can you say about social context in Anglo-American and European legal education?
- What changes in legal education took place in the 20-th century?
- Why do some law schools permit their students to take course outside the school?
- What is the graduation law student expected to know?
- What are the chief materials?
- Should the student remember "the law"?
- What should he understand after graduating a law school?
Текст 2. Law
All the rules requiring or prohibiting certain actions are known as law. In the most general sense, there are two kinds of law: natural law and positive law. Natural law has been recognised since the ancient world to be a general body of rules of right conduct and justice common to all mankind. This concept grew from the observation of the operation of the laws of nature and their uniformity. Positive law, on the other hand, consists of regulations formulated by the heads of a country or society. In many cases, natural laws have been written into positive laws by governments. The prohibition against killing, for example, is common to virtually all of mankind, and most nations have enacted laws against it.
Development of positive law
When people first began to live in groups they had few rules or laws, but they soon realised that each individual had to pay attention to the needs and welfare of his neighbours in order to make life not only tolerable but pleasant for the greatest number of people. It was considered necessary, for instance, for each person to recognise everyone else's rights to life and the ownership of property. Without this mutual recognition, society could not function in peace.
With the emergence of written languages it was possible to put laws into written form. One of the best known of the early codes, or collections of written laws, is that of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, who lived about 1800 BC. Probably the most famous of the ancient codes, however, is that found in the first five books of the Bible, the laws of Moses. The heart of this code is the Ten Commandments presented by Moses to the people of Israel. These commandments are the basic summary of all moral law designed to regulate the behaviour of individuals with regard to each other.
All other societies in the ancient world devised sets of laws. In the 7th century BC, a lawgiver named Draco drew up a very harsh code that punished offences, no matter how trivial, with death. Not many years later, another Greek lawgiver, Solon, repeated all but the laws dealing with murder. In the Greek city-state of Sparta, there was a legendary lawgiver named Lycurgus who, after giving the Spartans a code of law, left the city with the instruction that the laws were not to be changed until he returned. He never did return.
The most complete and complex system of laws in the ancient world was developed by the Romans. It was the product of many centuries of civilisation, from the early years of the Republic until the end of the Empire. In the 6th century AD, the emperor Justinian collected and organized the laws for use as the Roman Civil Law. Roman law has strongly influenced the general character of the laws in every nation of Western Europe except England.
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, AD 476, the Christian church, as the strongest institution in society, became a major lawmaking and law enforcement body. Called canon law (canons are regulations), a body of rules formulated by the church was designed to regulate human behaviour, with respect to religious matters primarily. But it eventually came to apply to the actions of people on social, economic, and political levels as well.
To enforce its laws against those who disagreed with it, the church of the Middle Ages created the Inquisition. Church courts in several countries examined those who were suspected of breaking church laws. Many people were cleared of wrongdoing, but others were not and were punished, frequently with death. One of the best known trials was that of the scientist Galileo. He agreed, under pressure, to deny his opinion that the planets orbit the sun in favour of the church doctrine that the sun circled the Earth.
The society of the Middle Ages was rigidly structured, with kings, princes, and nobles at the top and the common people mostly peasants working the land at the bottom. Within each kingdom the ruler issued the laws by which his people were to live. Such laws could not conflict with those of the church.
In England, each locality had its own laws based on custom and tradition. After the Norman Conquest, 1066, judges appointed by the king moved from one place to another to administer these local laws. As time passed, local laws gave way to judges' interpretations of a broader system of laws accepted in more than one area. Eventually the decisions of the judges, constantly modified by later decisions, were accepted as the body of English common law.
In France, under the guidance of Napoleon, a civil code was enacted in 1804. With revisions, it still remains in force and has been a major influence in the legal systems of most European countries and in Latin America. The Code Napoleon was made necessary by the diversity and confusion of laws that had developed in France and other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages and early modern period. The premise for the code was the idea that, for the first time in history, a law based purely on common sense should be created, free of all past prejudices and inequities. Under the code all citizens were recognised as equal, and all class privileges were done away with. The code was originally introduced in areas under French control in 1804: Belgium, Luxembourg, north-western Italy, and parts of Germany. After the Napoleonic conquests it was introduced into conquered Italy, the Netherlands, and most of Germany. It was voluntarily adopted during the 19th century in a number of other places, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina. In the United States, only Louisiana has a civil code closely connected with the Napoleonic code.
The influence of the Napoleonic code was somewhat diminished at the start of the 20th century by the introduction of the German Civil Code in 1900 and the Swiss Civil Code in 1912. Japan adopted the German code and Turkey the Swiss code.
Активная лексика: law, positive law, natural law, civil law, common law, canon law, court, legal, custom, to require-requirement, to prohibit-prohibition, rule, justice, to observe – observation, to regulate-regulation, to govern-government, to own-owner-ownership, property, mutual, code, summary, offense, lawgiver, to change, to influence, to inforce-inforcement, level, to administer, to decide-decision.
Найдите в тексте эквиваленты следующих слово: правильное поведение, законы природы, обращать внимание, делать жизнь приятной, признать право собственности, появление письменности, самый известный, регулировать поведение людей, с учетом, свод законов, спустя много лет, разрабатывать систему законов, многовековая цивилизация, Римское гражданское право, основной законотворческий орган, нарушать закон, оправдать человека, согласиться под давлением, издавать законы, вступать в конфликт с законами церкви; законы, основанные на обычаях и традициях; английское общее право, под руководством, оставаться в силе, юридическая система европейских стран; законы, базирующиеся на здравом смысле; покончить с классовыми привилегиями.
Ответьте на вопросы по тексту:
1. What is law?
2. What is natural (positive) law?
3. Why is it necessary to have laws?
4. What gave possibility to have written laws?
5. Which of the ancient codes is the most famous?
6. What can you say about 10 Commandments of Moses?
7. What is the role of Greek lawgiver Salon?
8. What can you say about Lucurgus? What does this case show?
9. Who is the author of Roman Civil Law and what is its role?
10. Who became a major lawmaker after the fall of the Roman Empire?
11. What is Canon Law?
12. What can you say about law of the middle ages?
13. What can you say about the Code Napoleon?
14. Name all the codes mentioned in the text.