III. Complete the following text with the words given. Speak about practicing lawyers in England.

 

courts; confer with; solicitor; barrister; negotiations; pleads; course; litigation; lawyers; numerous; carry on; trial; right; representative; citizens;

 

Solicitor is one of the two types of practicing ________ in England, the other being the ________, who ________ cases before the court. The solicitors ________ most of the office work in law. In general, a barrister undertakes no work except through a ________, who prepares and delivers the client’s instructions to a barrister. Solicitors confer with clients, give advice, draft documents, conduct ________, prepare cases for ________, and retain barristers for advice on special matters or for advocacy before the higher courts. They have a ________ to act in all courts as the agents for ________ or ________ of their clients, and they are deemed officers of the court, but they may appear as advocates only in the lower ________. Since their activities make up the greater part of the work of lawyers, solicitors are many times more ________ than barristers.

The education required of a solicitor includes a law school ________. A most important feature, however, is service under articles (apprenticeship) with a practicing solicitor for a period of five years (three years for university graduates). Solicitors must be British Commonwealth ________, although there is no such requirement for the barrister.

The official organization of solicitors is the Law Society, a voluntary group, incorporated by Parliament. The Law Society has extensive authority in setting and enforcing standards for solicitors. The society maintains a client-compensation fund to reduce and relieve losses sustained from dishonesty by solicitors. a solicitor, unlike a barrister, may sue for his fees.

 

IV. Before reading the text try to define the role of Criminal Law in society.

Words and expressions:

Civil Law – гражданское право

Common Law - право, основанное на сочетании законодательных актов и судебных прецедентов

Constitutional Law – конституционное право

Criminal Law – уголовное право

International Law – международное право

Public Law – публичное право

codified system – юридическая система, закрепленная в уголовно-процессуальном кодексе

offence – правонарушение

penalty provisions – предусмотренное законом наказание

statute – законодательный акт

 

Most judicial systems consist of Civil Law which concerns disputes among citizens within the country and Public Law which concerns disputes between citizens and the state or between one state and another.

The main categories of Public Law are Constitutional Law, International Law and Criminal Law.

Criminal Law regulates the relations between citizens and the state. It defines criminal offences, controls apprehension, charging and trial of suspected persons, and fixes penalties and modes of treatment applicable to convicted offenders.

In codified systems there are codes that correspond to these categories of law, for example, France’s Code Civil and Code Penal. There is no civil code or criminal code in either England or the USA. The law is based on statutes or Acts of Parliament (in the USA – the Constitution) and Common Law, i.e. past decisions of judges which are not regulated by the statutes and are made in accordance with a mass of precedents which were later interpreted by lawyers. In Britain, however, the statutes cover most crimes and contain maximum penalty provisions for various types of offences.

Criminal Law is only one of the devices by which organised societies protect the security of individual interests and assure the survival of the group. There are, in addition, the standards of conduct instilled by family, school, and religion; the rules of the office and factory and the regulations of civil life enforced by ordinary police powers.

 

Answer the following questions:

1) What are the main categories of Public Law?

2) What does Constitutional Law regulate?

3) What does International Law regulate?

4) What does Criminal Law regulate?

5) What is a codified system?

6) Which European countries have established codified systems of law?

7) Does Russia have a codified legal system?

8) What is judicial system in Great Britain and the USA based on?