Text 1. Social morality, rules and laws

 

The English word “law” refers to limits upon various forms of behaviour. Some laws are descriptive: they simply describe how people usually behave. Other laws are prescriptive – they prescribe how people ought to behave.

In all societies, relations between people are regulated by prescriptive laws. Some of them are customs – that is, informal rules of social and moral behaviour. Some are rules we accept if we belong to particular social institutions, such as religious, educational and cultural groups. And some laws are made by nations and enforced against all citizens within their power.

The rules of social institutions are more formal than customs. They carry penalties for those who break them. They are not, however, enforceable by any political authority.

Customs need not be made by governments, and they need not be written down. We learn how we should behave in society through the instruction of family and teachers, the advice of friends, and our own experiences. Sometimes, we can break these rules and do not suffer any penalty. But if we continually break the rules, or break a very important one, other members of society may criticize us, act violently toward us от refuse to have anything to do with us. The ways in which people talk, eat and drink, work and relax together are usually guided by many such informal rules which have very little to do with laws created by governments.

However, when governments make laws for their citizens, they use a system of courts backed by the power of the police. Of course, there may be instances where the law is not enforced against someone (for example when young children commit crimes). Government – made laws are nevertheless often patterned upon informal rules of conduct which already exist in society and relations between people are regulated by a combination of all these rules.

Exercise 10. Answer the questions on text 1.

 

1. What does the English word “law” refer to?

2. What regulates the relations between people?

3. Are customs made by governments?

4. How do we learn how to behave in society?

5. How do governments enforce the laws which they make?

 

Exercise 11. Read text 2 and translate it into Russian in written form.

TEXT 2. CUSTOMS

 

Customs are social habits, patterns of behaviour, which all societies evolve without express formulation or conscious creation. Custom is one of the principal sources of law; originally law was based upon it. Moreover, custom is not important only as a source of law, for even today some customary rules are still observed and they have almost the same power as rules of law. The only difference is that their observance is not enforced by the organs of the State. Thus, many of the fundamental rules of the Constitution are “conventional” (i. e. customary) rather than legal, rules.

But in modern times most general customs (i. e. customs universally observed throughout the realm) either do not exist or have become absorbed in rules of law. For example many of the early rules of the common law were general customs which the courts adopted, and they have become laws.

On the other hand customs of particular groups of people living in particular localities, are sometimes still capable of creating a special “law” for the locality in question which is different from the general law of the land.

But such variants will only be recognized if certain conditions are satisfied. The following are among the more important of those conditions. The custom must (1) not be unreasonable, (2) the right must be claimed by or on behalf of a defined group of people, (3) must have existed since “time immemorial”. This means that it must go back to 1189 (by historical accident the terminal date of “legal memory”).

 

Exercise 12. Answer the questions on text 2.

1. What is one of the principle sources of law?

2. Is custom important only as a source of law?

3. What is the difference between customary rules and rules of law?

4. Do customs still create new laws?

5. What conditions must such customs satisfy?

 

Exercise 13. Read text 3 and translate it into Russian in written form.

TEXT 3. COMMON AND CONTINENTAL LAW

 

Each country in the world has its own system of law. There are two main traditions of law in the world. One is based on English Common law¹. The other tradition is known as Continental, or Roman law.

Common law, or case law system, differs from Continental law as it has developed gradually throughout history. It is not the result of government attempts to codify every legal relation. Customs and court rulings have been as important as statutes (government legislation). Judges do not merely apply the law, in some cases they make law, and their, interpretations may become precendents for other courts.

Before William of Normandy invaded England in 1066 no law was common to the whole kingdom. The Norman Kings sent travelling judges around the country and gradually a “common law” developed. Uniform application of the law throughout the country was promoted by the gradual development of the doctrine of precedent.

The doctrine of precedent is still a central feature of modern common law systems.

Even when governments make new laws – statutes, they are interpreted by the courts in order to fit particular cases, and these interpretations become new precedents.

Continental systems, codified legal systems, have resulted from attempts by governments to produce a set of codes so that the state could govern every legal aspect of a citizen’s life.

When the lawmakers were codifying their legal systems, they looked to the example of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, whose legislators wanted to break with previous case law.

The lawmakers were also influenced by the model of the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, but the most important models were the codes produced in the seventh century under the direction of the Roman Emperor Justinian.

Versions of Roman law had long influenced many parts of Europe but had little impact on English law.

 

Exercise 14. Read text 4 and translate it into Russian in written form.

TEXT 4. ENGLISH LAW

 

English law can be divided into Statute Law¹, Common Law and Case Law². Statute Law consists of all laws passed by Parliament. The majority of laws are proposed and drafted by the government in power, any member of the House of Commons or House of Lords can also propose a law. An exception to this is that only a member of the House of Commons may introduce a financial Bill. The laws that are drafted by the government, as the laws proposed by individual members of the House of Commons or House of Lords, must be agreed to by Parliament before they become effective. That means that they must be passed by the elected House of Commons, approved (in most cases) by the House of Lords, and confirmed by the Sovereign.

Common Law consists of principles and rules of conduct based on the ancient customs of the country and recognized by the Courts as Law. Common Law is unwritten, and its principles can be learnt only by intensive study of past court decisions and ancient custom. The Common Law can, however, be changed or developed by statute.

But more important perhaps than either the Statute Law or even the Common Law are decisions of the Courts. Just as the many ancient customs of the land make up the Common Law, the collected decisions of the Courts form English "Case Law". Once Parliament has passed a law, the courts must decide what the words of that law mean. The interpretation of the Courts remains till either a higher Court decides that this interpretation was wrong, or Parliament passes another law and changes it.

So once a Court decided against the government on a question of what a law means – and the Courts may decide that a law as worded means something quite different from what the government intended – the government must accept the decision of the Court. They may, if the Houses agree, pass another law. But that takes a great deal of time and trouble.

Notes:

¹ Statute Law – статутное право, писаный закон

² Case Law – прецедентное право