NEED FOR LAW
TEXT 1
Mr. Jones, having murdered his wife, was burying her in the garden one night, when his neighbour, hearing the noise, asked him what he was doing.
"Just burying the cat," said Mr. Jones.
"Funny sort of time to bury a cat," said the neighbour.
"Funny sort of cat," said Mr. Jones.
Now it is obvious to everyone that, in a community such as the one in which we live, some kind of law is necessary to try to prevent people like Mr. Jones from killing their wives. When the world was at a very primitive stage, there was no such law, and, if a man chose to kill his wife or if a woman succeeded in killing her husband, that was their own business and no one interfered officially.
But, for a very long time now, members of every community have made laws for themselves in self-protection. Otherwise it would have meant that the stronger man could have done what he liked with the weaker, and bad men could have joined together and terrorized the whole neighbourhood.
If it were not for the law, you could not go out in broad daylight without the fear of being kidnapped, robbed or murdered. There are far, far more good people in the world than bad, but there are enough of the bad to make law necessary in the interests of everyone.
There is no difficulty in understanding this but it is just as important to understand that law is not necessary just because there are bad people in the world. If we were all as good as we ought to be, laws would still be necessary. If we never told lies, never took anything that didn't belong to us, never omitted to do anything that we ought to do and never did anything that we ought not to do, we should still require a set of rules of behaviour, in other words laws, to enable us to live in any kind of satisfactory state. How is one good man in a motor-car to pass another good man also in a motor-car coming in the opposite direction, unless there is some rule of the road?
People sometimes hover in front of one another when they are walking on the pavement before they can pass, and they may even collide. Not much harm is done then, but, if two good men in motor-cars going in the opposite directions hover in front of one another, not knowing which side to pass, the result will probably be that there will be two good men less in the world.
So you can see that there must be laws, however good we may be. Unfortunately, however, we are none of us always good and some of us are bad, or at any rate have our bad moments, and so the law has to provide for all kinds of possibilities. Suppose you went to a greengrocer and bought some potatoes and found on your return home that they were mouldy or even that some of them were stones. What could you do if there were no laws on the subject? In the absence of law you could only rely upon the law of the jungle. You could go back to the shop, demand proper potatoes and hit the shopkeeper on the nose if he refused to give them to you. You might then look round the shop to try to find some decent potatoes. While you were doing this, the shopkeeper might hit you on the back of the neck with a pound weight. Altogether not a very satisfactory morning shopping.
Every country tries, therefore, to provide laws which will help its people to live safely and as comfortably as possible. This is not at all an easy thing to do, and no country has been successful in producing laws which are entirely satisfactory. But we are far better off with the imperfect laws which we have, than if we had none at all.
TASK 1. Work in groups. Find in the text law-related words and expressions. Compare your lists with those of the other students. In your opinion, which of the items are legal terms?
TASK 2. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following words and expressions:
I. самозащита 2.телохранитель 3. общество 4. правила поведения 5. закон джунглей 6. несовершенные законы 7. при свете дня 8. причинять вред 9. предусмотреть все возможности 10. полагаться на кого-либо II. требовать
TASK 3. Translate the following passage into English paying special attention to the link words and expressions in bold type: Очевидно, что закон необходим в интересах всего общества. Иначе людям пришлось бы жить по закону джунглей. К сожалению, создать совершенные законы не просто. Следовательно, каждое сообщество пытается установить свои собственные правила поведения. Однако закон не может удовлетворить всех. В любом случае, несовершенные законы лучше беззакония.
TEXT 2 The Birth of Law
Rules and laws — and the conventions or customs from which they are descended — have been a part of human life ever since our ancestors first began to live in large and settled groups. But our knowledge is vague of laws that were in effect before the invention of writing in about 3500 B.C. The earliest known legal text was written by Ur-Nammu, a king of the Mesopotamian city of
Laws of
One of the most detailed ancient legal codes was drawn up in about 1758 B.C. by Hammurabi, a king of
The pillar, lost for centuries after the fall of
The laws laid down by Hammurabi were more extensive than any that had gone before. They covered crime, divorce and marriage, the rights of slave owners and slaves, the settlement of debts, inheritance and property contracts; there were even regulations about taxes and the prices of goods. Punishments under the code were often harsh. The cruel principle of revenge was observed: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, which meant that criminals had to receive as punishment precisely those injuries and damages they had inflicted upon their victims. Not only murderers but also thieves and false accusers faced the death penalty. And a child who hit his father could expect to lose the hand that struck the blow. The code outlawed private blood feuds and banned the tradition by which a man could kidnap and keep the woman he wanted for his bride. In addition, the new laws took account of the circumstances of the offender as well as of the offence. So a lower-ranking citizen who lost a civil case would be fined less than an aristocrat in the same position — though he would also be awarded less if he won.
Nevertheless, Hammurabi's laws represented an advance on earlier tribal customs, because the penalty could not be harder than the crime.
TASK.4 Find in the text the English equivalents for the following law-related words and expressions.
Вор, клеветник, правонарушитель, правонарушение, преступление, кровная месть, наносить ущерб, наносить увечья, похищать, смертная казнь, наказание, штрафовать, получать компенсацию, брак, развод, налоги, наследство, долги, цены на товары, гражданское дело, права рабов, имущественные контракты
TASK 5. The word LEGAL has the following meanings in Russian:
1) юридический legal person — юридическое лицо
2) правовой legal text — правовой текст
3) судебный legal action — судебный иск
4) законный, дозволенный законом legal owner — законный владелец
5) легальный legal activities — правомерная, законная деятельность
TASK 6
Match the following English expressions with their Russian equivalents:
| 1) legal activities | а) законные права |
| 2) legal address | b) законный владелец |
| 3) legal advice | с) имеющий законную силу |
| 4) legal age | d) использовать свое законное право |
| 5) legal costs | е) история права |
| 6) legal decision | f) консультация юриста |
| 7) legal document | g) правовая защита |
| 8) legal entity | h) правовой документ |
| 9) legal ethics | i) правовой статус |
| 10) legal expert | j) правомерная, |
| 11) legal history | законная деятельность |
| 12) legal language | к) профессиональная этика юриста |
| 13) legal owner | 1) решение суда |
| 14) legal procedure | т) совершеннолетие |
| 15) legal protection | п) стать юристом |
| 16) legal rights | о) судебные издержки |
| 17) legal status | р) судопроизводство |
| 18) of legal force | q) юридическая терминология |
| 19) to enjoy one's legal rights | г) юридический адрес |
| 20) to enter the legal profession | s) юридическое лицо |
| | t) юрисконсульт; юридический советник |
