Read the text and tell about executing of war criminals

NÜRNBERG TRIALS

The most important war crimes trials following World War II were held in Nürnberg, Germany, under the authority of two legal instruments signed by representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1945.

On October 18, 1945, the chief prosecutors lodged an indictment with the tribunal charging 24 individuals with a variety of crimes and atrocities (зверства), including the deliberate instigation of aggressive wars, extermination of racial and religious groups, murder and mistreatment of prisoners of war, and the murder, mistreatment, and deportation to slave labour of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of countries occupied by Germany during the war.

Among the accused were Nationalist Socialist leaders Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess, diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop, munitions maker Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, and 18 other military leaders and civilian officials. Seven organizations that formed part of the basic structure of the Nazi government were also charged as criminal. These organizations included the SS (Schutzstaffel, German for “Defense Corps”), the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei, “Secret State Police”), the SA (Sturmabteilung, “Storm Troops”), and the General Staff and High Command of the German armed forces.

The trial began on November 20, 1945. The judgment of the International Military Tribunal was handed down on September 30-October 1, 1946. With respect to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the tribunal found overwhelming evidence of a systematic rule of violence, brutality, and terrorism by the German government in the territories occupied by its forces. Millions of persons were destroyed in concentration camps, many of which were equipped with gas chambers for the extermination of Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and members of other ethnic or religious groups. Under the slave-labour policy of the German government, at least 5 million persons had been forcibly deported from their homes to Germany. Many of them died because of inhuman treatment. The tribunal also found that atrocities had been committed on a large scale and as a matter of official policy.

Twelve defendants were sentenced to death by hanging, seven received prison terms ranging from ten years to life, and three, including the German politician and diplomat Franz von Papen and the president of the German Central Bank Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, were acquitted. Those who had been condemned to death were executed on October 16, 1946. Göring committed suicide in prison a few hours before he was to be executed.

Subsequent Trials

After the conclusion of the first Nürnberg trial, 12 more trials were held and provided for war crimes trials in each of the four zones of occupied Germany.

About 185 individuals were indicted in the 12 cases. Those indicted included doctors who had conducted medical experiments on concentration camp inmates and prisoners of war, judges who had committed murder and other crimes under the guise of the judicial process, and industrialists who had participated in the looting of occupied countries and in the forced-labour program. Other persons indicted included SS officials who had headed the concentration camps, administered the Nazi racial laws, and carried out the extermination of Jews and other groups in the eastern territories overrun by the German army; and high military and civilian officials who bore responsibility for these and other criminal acts and policies of the Third Reich. A number of doctors and SS leaders were condemned to death by hanging, and approximately 120 other defendants were given prison sentences of various durations. The tribunals acquitted 35 defendants.

 

Part V Private Law

 

Unit 1 Civil Law Section 1 The Nature of Civil Law

I. WARMING-UP

1. Answer the following questions:

What is civil law system?

What is the main difference between civil law and common law?

What do you know about the history of civil law?

2. Match the following English words and expressions with their Ukrainian equivalents:

 

1 deterioration a табличка з написом

2 tablet b уникати

3 transaction c занепад

4 to eliminate d правочин

5 vast e великий

Circle the word in each group which is different in pronunciation of the underlined vowel(s).

[i:] med ie val spr ea d l e gal agr ee ment

[ei] n a ture b a sis origin a te m a rriage

[ai] i dentical d i vorce Un i ted appl y

Write the words using their transcription.

 

[˛medi΄i:v(ə)l] [΄kwontəti] [˛kompri΄hen(t)siv] [ai΄dentik(ə)l]

Read the text to understand what information is of primary importance or new for you.

TEXT 1

The Nature of Civil Law

Civil Law, is a term applied to a legal tradition originating in ancient Rome and to the contemporary legal systems based on this tradition. Modern civil law systems, which were originally developed in Western European countries, have spread throughout the world. Civil law is typically contrasted with common law, a system that evolved in medieval England and that is the basis of law in most of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.

The term civil law also applies to all legal proceedings (whether taking place in a civil law or a common law system) that are not criminal in nature. Under this definition laws regulating marriage, contracts, and payment for personal injury are examples of civil law.

The most obvious feature of a civil law system is the presence of a written code of law. The code is a systematic and comprehensive accumulation of legal rules and principles.

The civil law tradition traces its origin to the Roman Republic. The early custom and laws of Rome were put in writing for the first time in 451 and 450 bc, when they were inscribed on 12 bronze tablets. The principles contained within these Twelve Tables constituted the basis for all Roman civil law.

In compiling the Corpus Juris Civilis, Justinian sought to rescue the Roman legal system from years of deterioration and to restore it to its former glory. The vast quantity of material written on the civil law convinced him that the code should eliminate error, resolve conflicts.

The rise of nationalism that began in the 18th century led to the adoption of distinct civil codes for each European country, of which the French Code Napoléon of 1804 is the most famous. In the early 1900s Switzerland and Germany adopted similar codes. The subject matter of all these codes is almost identical with the first three books of the Corpus Juris Civilis.

The civil law tradition makes a sharp distinction between private and public law. Private law is the law that governs relations between private citizens and private businesses. When applied to financial and commercial transactions, it is known as commercial law. All other private law is known as civil law or labour law. Civil law refers to the law of persons, family law, marital property law, property law, contract law and tort law. Labour law regulates the relations of employers and their employees.

In general, public law regulates the relations between organs of the government and between the government and private citizens. Public law consists of matters that concern the government: constitutional law, criminal law, and administrative law, it also includes taxation and business licensing. In many countries with civil law systems, two sets of courts exist—those that hear public law cases and those that address matters of private law.

 

II. COMPREHENSION