Учебное пособие для студентов юридических специальностей chapter I law

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Unit 4 Sources of Modern Law

Before you read
Discuss these questions.

Can you explain the doctrine of “precedent”?
Can you name two main systems of law?
What system of law operates in your country?

Text A
Historical and Political Background
In order to understand why a particular country has a particular legal system it is necessary to look its history, political structure and social values. Despite civil wars in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and enormous social changes associated with industrialization, England and Wales have retained many laws and legal principles that originated eight centuries ago.

Each country in the world, even each state of the United States, has its own system of law. But there are two main traditions of law in the world. One is based on English Common law, and has been adopted by many Commonwealth countries and most of the United States. The other tradition, sometimes known as Continental, or Roman law, has developed in most of continental Europe, Latin America and many countries in Asia and Africa which have been strongly influenced by Europe.
Text B
Common Law Systems
Common law, or case law systems, particularly that of England, differ from Continental law in having developed gradually throughout history, not as the result of government attempts to define or 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, since their interpretations may become precedents for other courts to follow.

Although local and ancient customs played their part, uniform application of the law throughout the country was promoted by the gradual development of the doctrine of precedent.

By this principle, judges attempted to apply existing customs and laws to each new case, rather than looking to the government to write new laws. If the essential elements of a case were the same as those of previous recorded cases, then the judge was bound to reach the same decision regarding guilt or innocence. Once a decision had been made, there was a tendency to decide subsequent cases involving the same problem in the same way. Thus arose the rule of stare decisis meaning "adhere to the decisions" or "let the decided cases stand."

If no precedent could be found then the judge made a decision based upon existing legal principles, and his decision would become a precedent for other courts to follow when a similar case arose. The doctrine of precedent is still a central feature of modern common law systems. Courts are bound by the decisions of previous courts unless it can be shown that the facts differ from previous cases. Sometimes governments make new laws – statutes – to modify or clarify the common law, or to make rules where none existed before. But even statutes often need to be interpreted by the courts in order to fit particular cases, and these interpretations become new precedents. In common law systems, the law is, thus, found not only in government statutes, but also in the historical records of cases.

The general principles of law established in this way came to be called the common law because, in contrast to the law or custom of particular localities, it was "common" to the whole of England. The common law comprised the wisdom and experience of many generations of judges and laid down many important principles protective of individual rights of person and property.

Another important feature of the common law tradition is equity. By the fourteenth century many people in England were dissatisfied with the inflexibility of the common law, and a practice developed of appealing directly to the king or to his chief legal administrator, the lord chancellor. As the lord chancellor’s court became more willing to modify existing common law in order to solve disputes, a new system of law developed alongside the common law. This system recognized rights that were not enforced as common law but which were considered "equitable", or just, such as the right to force someone to fulfill a contract rather than simply pay damages for breaking it, or the rights of a beneficiary of a trust. The courts of common law and of equity existed alongside each other for centuries. If an equitable principle would bring a different result from a common law ruling on the same case, then the general rule was that equity should prevail.

One problem resulting from the existence of two systems of justice was that a person often had to begin actions in different courts in order to get a satisfactory solution. For example, in a breach (breaking) of contract claim, a person had to seek specific performance (an order forcing the other party to do something) in court of equity, and damages (monetary compensation for his loss) in a common law court. In l873, the two systems were unified, and nowadays a lawyer can pursue common law and equitable claims in the same court.

Although courts continually have to find ways of interpreting existing common law for new cases, legislation has become the most important source of new law. When the government feels that existing common law, equity or statutes are in need of revision or clarification, it passes new legislation. In this way courts avoid the obligation to follow precedent. Parliament passes hundreds of new laws every year on matters that need to be regulated more precisely than the common law has been able to do and on matters that never arose when the common law was developed. For example, modern society has produced crimes such as business fraud and computer theft which require complex and precise definitions. Some modern legislation is so precise and comprehensive it is rather like a code in the Continental system.

The spread of common law in the world is due both to the once widespread influence of Britain in the world and the growth of its former colony, the United States. Although judges in one common law country cannot directly support their decisions by cases from another, it is permissible, for a judge to note such evidence in giving an explanation. Nevertheless political divergence has produced legal divergence from England. Unified federal law is only a small part of American law. Most of it is produced by individual states and reflects various traditions. The state of Louisiana, for example, has a Roman civil form of law which derives from its days as a French colony. California has a case law tradition, but its laws are codified as extensively as many Continental systems.
Vocabulary

background n 1 предыстория; предпосылки; исходная ситуация; 2 фон

beneficiary n бенефициарий (получатель доходов/ выгод от имущества,

находящегося в доверительном управлении)

break a contract v нарушить контракт /договор

claim n 1 требование; 2 заявление

common law n 1 общее право (как прецедентное право в отличие от статутного

права); 2 общее право, англосаксонское право (в отличие от континентального

права)щее право, англосаксонское право статустного праваравленииble to do Latin America and many countries in Asia and Africa whic); 3 общее право Англии, обычно common law of England (как совокупность

прецедентного и статутного права)

common-law court n суд общего права

comprehensive adj понятный

continental law n континентально-европейское право; syn Roman (Civil) law

римское право

damages n возмещение убытков

equitable adj справедливый

equity n 1 справедливость; 2 право справедливости; equity court суд “права

справедливости”, суд системы “права справедливости”

fraud n мошенничество, обман; business fraud мошенничество в бизнесе

guilt n вина; виновность

innocence n невиновность

justice n 1 правосудие; 2 справедливость; system of justice система правосудия

lord chancellor, Lord Chancellor n Лорд-канцлер (главное судебное должностное

лицо, спикер палаты лордов, член кабинета министров)

performance n исполнение; specific performance реальное исполнение

precise adj точный

promote v способствовать; содействовать

pursue v преследовать; искать в суде

regarding adv относительно

retain v сохранять

ruling n 1 решение (суда); 2 издание норм, правил; court rulings решения суда

seek (sought, sought) v добиваться; требовать

stare decisis [`sta:ri di`saisis] лат. following precedent “стоять на решённом”

(формула функционирования и развития права на основе судебных прецедентов);

обязывающая сила прецедентов

theft n кража; computer theft кража с использованием компьютера

trust n траст, доверительный фонд

Reading tasks
Comprehension check
A Read the text to decide whether the statements below are true (T) or false (F).
1 The law in England is the same as the law in France. _______

2 English law has evolved gradually. _______

3 Most of English law has been codified. _______

4 The common law was developed by the judges. _______

5 All the courts in the system are of equal authority. _______
B Study the following definitions of COMMON LAW. Translate them into Russian.
TEXT 1: Roger Bird, Osborne's Concise Law Dictionary, Seventh Edition
common law. That part of the law of England formulated, developed and administered by the old common law courts, based originally on the common customs of the country, and unwritten. It is opposed to equity (the body of rules administered by the Court of Сhancery¹); to statute law (the law laid down in Acts of Parliament); to special law (the law administered in special courts such as ecclesiastical law, and the law merchant); and to the civil law (the law of Rome).

It is 'the commonsense of the community, crystallised and formulated by our forefathers'. It is not local law, nor the result of legislation.

¹ the Court of Chancery амер. суд системы “права справедливости”
TEXT 2: The Encyclopaedia Britannica
common law, also called ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW, the body of customary law, based upon judicial decisions and embodied in reports of decided cases, which has been administered by the common-law courts of England since the Middle Ages. From this has evolved the type of legal system now found also in the United States and in most of the member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. Common law stands in contrast to the rules developed by the separate courts of equity, to statute law (i.e., the acts of legislative bodies), and to the legal system derived from civil law now widespread in western Europe and elsewhere.
TEXT 3: Powell R. Law today. 1993.
common law. A system in which legal decisions are based upon decisions in previous cases (Doctrine of precedent) and on custom, rather than on detailed written laws. It is sometimes called case law and originally developed in England. Common law is an important part of the legal systems of many countries which have been influenced by English law, such as the USA and India.
C Answer these questions.
1 What do you understand by common law?

2 What was the original source of common-law principles?

3 Would a codified system of law make the law more a) certain, or b) flexible?

4 Why is it important for judges to be independent?

5 What is stare decisis?

6 What is the name of the court which administered equity?

7 What other countries apart from England have a common-law legal system?

8 In what sense is the “constitution” of England a “creature” of the common law?
Language focus
Put the words in brackets into the correct form, active or passive. Translate the text.
The English legal system 1) _____ (centralize) through a court structure which is common to the whole country. It is hierarchical, with the higher courts and
judges having more authority than the lower ones. Some important
characteristics of English law are:

English law 2) _____ (base) on the common law tradition. By this we 3) _____ (mean) a system of 'judge made' law which continuously 4) _____ (develop) over the years through the decisions of judges in the cases brought before them. These judicial precedents are an important source of law in the English
legal system. Common law systems are different from the civil law
systems of Western Europe and Latin America. In these countries the law

5) _____ (codify) or systematically collected to form a consistent body of legal rules.

English judges have an important role in developing case law and stating
the meaning of Acts of Parliament.
The judges are independent of the government and the people
appearing before them. This 6) _____ (allow) them to make impartial decisions.

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