Vocabulary

Exercise 3. Match legal terms on the left (1-14) with definitions on the right (a-n).

	confederation		one of the three instruments of democratic government vested with the law making powers and it can formulate and rescind laws
	government		the ways in which each branch of government limits the powers of the other branches of government; systems developed to prevent abuses of power
	constitutional convention		the body of law formed through judicial/court decisions, as opposed to law formed through statutes or written legislation
	legislative branch		the complex of political institutions, laws, and customs through which the function of governing is carried out
	executive branch		past decision in a legal case that must be followed by lower courts in future similar cases
	checks and balances		the legal principle established by a court decision or a ruling by a court during trial
	constitutionality		the legal rules governing the practice and procedure of the courts when conducting lawsuits
	common law		a group of states or nations, united for a common purpose; a league
	binding authority		statutory or written law; the body of law that creates and defines rights rather than simply outlying procedural rules
	holding		under the doctrine of stare decisis, statements that are not binding, although in some jurisdictions, they can be strongly persuasive
	dicta		formal abbreviations accepted by the legal profession, judges and lawyers, in lieu of long hand transcription of the full title of judgments published in collections known as law reports
	substantive law		the condition of something, such as a law or a procedure, being acceptable under the constitution
	procedural law		a representative body meeting to form and adopt a new constitution or to form, consider, and adopt amendments to an existing constitution
	legal citation		the branch of the United States government that is charged with administering and carrying out the law

Exercise 4. Use Legal terms from Exercise 3 to complete these sentences.

1. Case citation serves two major functions: first, a complete ____________ allows the reader to find the decision; second, it should convey valuable information about the case, including the date it was handed down, court level, jurisdiction and case history.

2. In criminal law, _______________ sets out what acts are crimes and imposes punishments. _____________ defines the steps in which the accused is brought to justice e.g. the arrest, the charge, the trial etc. Time limits and questions of how to start a lawsuit and proceed with it are _______________ matters.

3. The case of Bernstein v. Bryce remained ___________ despite the Supreme Court's later decision.

4. The system of ______________ in the US Constitution guarantees that no part of the government becomes too powerful.

5. The court’s statements concerning whether strict liability was applicable were merely obiter ___________ and hence not binding on the judge in the present dispute.

6. A US Appeals Court has ruled that same-sex weddings in California cannot continue while it considers the ______________ of the state's gay marriage ban.

7. The English ________________ has evolved over some 350 years, with judges basing their decisions on those made by predecessors.

8. The ______________ in a case does not include the court's comments on nonessential issues. These are known as obiter dicta.

9. Since coming into office, the President has actually expanded the scope and cost of the federal ______________.

10. The _______________ implements and enforces all the laws created by the __________________, and also enforces all laws as interpreted, from time to time, by the judiciary.

Exercise 5. Study the dictionaries and give definitions for these terms. Compare with your partner.

1. civil law system

2. judge-made law

3. admissibility of evidence

4. Reporter

5. precedent

6. judiciary

Exercise 6. Match verbs on the left (1-14) with words or expressions on the right (a-n) to make collocations and translate them. Use collocations in sentences of your own.

	to unite		taxes
	to agree		the power of judicial review
	to ratify		powers
	to impose		into a single nation
	to regulate		on earlier cases
	to solve		the laws of the fifty states
	to establish		interstate and foreign commerce
	to give		uniformity
	to overstep		to a very weak confederation
	to judge		greater authoritative weight
	to rely		the system of checks and balances
	to reconcile		the validity of state statutes
	to ensure		a problem of representation
	to have		“The Articles of Confederation”

Exercise 7. Insert prepositions where necessary. Translate the sentences.

1. The individual states could and did ignore federal laws … … impunity.

2. Moving … … sovereign states … … a stronger central government resulted … … a central government, still protective … … states’ rights, but … … broader federal powers … … individuals.

3. A constitutional convention resulted … … the new constitution (1787). This new constitution added two branches … … the federal government: a federal system … … courts … … the Supreme Court as its head and the executive branch … … the control of the newly created office … … the president.

4. In Re Marbury v. Madison (1803) it was held that it was the job … … the federal courts to decide if Congress had adhered … … the rules in the Constitution.

5. Not long … … that decision, the Supreme Court held that the federal Constitution gave the court the authority to judge the validity … … state statutes if they seemed … … conflict … … the federal constitution.

6. Anglo-American law is called “case law” or “judge-made law”. That’s true … … an extent, but … … reality a significant portion … … the law of the United States is codified.

7. … … those circumstances, attorneys must rely … … earlier cases (“the common law”) … … the issue; however, constitutional provisions and statutes take precedence … … case law.

8. Some states choose to enact only portions … … a model code, some enact it … … its entirety, and others choose not to accept any … … a model code’s provisions. However, use … … the model codes … … most states for … … least some … … the provisions has ensured some uniformity in U.S. law.

9. Binding authority is a ruling that was decided … … a higher court … … the direct line … … appeal.

10. Ninety percent … … the cases … … the United States are settled … … of court. This allows us to infer that … … 90 percent of cases attorneys … … opposing sides reach a compromise based … … research and an understanding … … the law as the judge would see it.

11. Related … … the binding and persuasive authority is the distinction … … holding and dicta.

12. … … the other hand, substantive law concerns the law dealing … … the facts … … the case itself, such as the law … … torts, products liability, corporations, or contracts.

Exercise 8. Study the phrases and fill in the gaps in the following phrases with prepositions. Compare with your partner. Make sentences using these phrases.

1. Do smth … … impunity

2. Move … … smth

3. Result … … smth

4. Be protective … …smth

5. … smth as one’s head

6. Adhere … … smth

7. Be … conflict … smth

8. Be true … extent

9. Be settled … … … … court

10. Attorneys … … opposing sides

11. … … the circumstances

12. Take precedence … … smth

Exercise 9. Study the following sentences. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1. Unless specifically enacted by a state or a federal legislature, a model code has no force as law.

2. Courts generally uphold the amount of damages agreed upon by the parties unless it is considered to be excessive or unreasonable.

3. We will not seek to infringe privacy unless it is justified by a clear public interest or we have obtained consent.

4. Under the US Federal Administrative Procedure Act, a person cannot ask the courts to rule on an agency action unless he "has exhausted all administrative remedies available within the agency."

LISTENING

Exercise 10. Watch the video “INTRODUCTION TO U.S. COURT SYSTEM” and say which issues are not mentioned by the speaker.

1. Exceptions to jurisdictions

2. Functions of the executive branch

3. Hierarchy of courts

4. Jurisdiction of federal courts

5. Jurisdiction of state courts

6. Jurisdiction of the US Supreme Court

7. Powers of the President

8. The federal system of courts

Exercise 11. Watch the video one more time and decide whether the statements are true or false.

1. In the U.S. there are several parallel systems that operate simultaneously.

2. The Federal system deals with all cases.

3. The State system is very remote and not many people come into contact with it.

4. You can easily jump between State and Federal Courts.

5. All cases get from the bottom level to the top level.

SPEAKING

1. What is a confederation? What features does a confederation possess? Do you know any confederations existing now?

2. In what way is the civil law system different from the common law system? Which system of law exists in Russia? In the USA? What are advantages and disadvantages of each system? What do you know about the “mixed law system”?

3. What do you know about substantive law and procedural law? Why is it important for a lawyer to understand the difference between substantive and procedural rules?

4. Do lawyers in Russia use legal citations? If yes, what information does a legal citation include? Why is it necessary for lawyers to be able to decipher a legal citation?

5. What do you know about Restatements of the law? Are they equal in authority to codes? Do legal professionals in Russia refer to Restatements of Law when dealing with legal issues in Russia? What sources do legal professionals rely on when dealing with legal issues in Russia?