Exercise 1. Match the words and their definitions
| 1. Precedent | a. an official attempt to discover the facts about something; |
| 2. Case Law | b. a group of people who have been chosen to listen to all the facts in a trial in a law court and to decide whether a person is guilty or not; |
| 3. To charge | c. an action or decision which has already happened and can be used as a reason why a similar action should be performed; |
| 4. Jury | d. the body of law set out in judicial decisions, as distinct from statute law; |
| 5. Inquiry | e. to change the words of (esp. a law or a legal document); |
| 6. To amend | f. to make a formal statement saying that someone is accused of a crime. |
Exercise 2. Match the word combinations with the Russian equivalents
| 1. Indictable | a. ежеквартальные судебные сессии; |
| 2. Civil jurisdiction | b. Мировой Судья; |
| 3. Overlapping offences | c. выездные сессии суда присяжных; |
| 4. Justice of the Peace | d. частично совпадающие правонарушения; |
| 5. Quarter sessions | e. подлежащий рассмотрению в суде, уголовный; |
| 6. Assizes | f. гражданская юрисдикция. |
Exercise 3. Finish the sentence adding the information from the text
1. British law is based on the common law tradition – … .
2. A criminal case is … .
3. Civil laws regulate relations … .
4. The law of Britain distinguishes offences … .
5. New legislation in Britain usually starts in the House of Lords and in each house a bill … .
6. If the House of Commons does not agree, the bill … .
Exercise 4. Fill in the missing words
Justices of the Peace jury amendments
Assizes precedents charged
1. The judicial … are an important source of law in the English legal system.
2. A criminal case is a legal action against a person … with committing a crime.
3. Indictable offences are the more serious crimes, which must be tried before a … .
4. … made to a bill by the House of Lords must be considered by the Commons.
5. Magistrates’ Courts are presided overby … .
6. … deal with the most serious offences and cases presenting special difficulties.
Exercise 5. Answer the following questions
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1. What is the main principle of Anglo-American law?
2. What are the main distinctive divisions of British law?
3. Give main characteristics of the principal courts in England and Wales.
4. Where does new legislation start in Great Britain?
5. What is the procedure of bringing and passing the bill in England?
6. Which House is the main in passing the bill?
LAW IN THE USA
The judicial power of the United States is the third branch of the Federal Government. It consists of a system of courts spread throughout the country and is headed by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Congress has the authority to create and abolish federal courts, as well as to determine the number of judges in the federal judicial system. However, the Congress cannot abolish the Supreme Court.
The United States has two systems of law, state and federal. It means that in addition to federal courts each state has its own judicial system including its own Supreme Court.
The federal judges are appointed by the President for life, in practice, until they die, retire or resign. They can be removed from the office only for misconduct and after trial in the Congress.
Federal courts have judicial power over cases arising out of the Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States, maritime cases, and cases dealing with foreign citizens or governments and cases arising between states. Usually federal courts do not hear cases arising out of the laws of individual states.
The federal and states courts have the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional, that is in violation of the Constitution. By Constitution the courts have the power to hear and decide the two classes of cases – criminal and civil.
The Supreme Court, the highest court in the country and the head of the judicial branch of the US Government, consists of a Chief Justice and eight associate Justices appointed for life by the President with the approval by the Senate.
One of the most important duties of the Supreme Court justices is to decide whether laws passed by the Congress agree with the Constitution. If the Supreme Court decides that the Constitution does not give Congress the power to passes a certain law, the Court will declare that law to be unconstitutional. Such a law will never come into force. Decisions of the Court are taken by a simple majority. The legal quorum of Justices, participating in the decision, is six (out of nine).
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Immediately below the Supreme Court stand the courts of appeals, created in 1891 to hear most of the appeals growing out of district court actions. Only the Supreme Court reviews the decisions of the appeals courts.
Below the courts of appeals are the district courts. The 50 states are divided into 89 districts. Additionally, there is one in the District of Columbia and one in Puerto Rico, which is not a state, but part of the USA. Each state has at least one district court.
Most cases start in district courts. Cases begun in state courts are occasionally transferred to them. Almost all accused of committing federal crimes are tried in the district courts.
The Constitution gives Congress the authority to establish other courts for special purposes. One of the most important of these special courts is the Court of Claims, which was established in 1855. It deals with monetary claims against the federal Government. Usually claims are for unpaid salary, property taken for public use, contractual obligation, etc. Another important special court is the Customs Court, which have exclusive jurisdiction over cases, connected with taxes or quotas on important goods. The United States has the most complex judicial system in the world.
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