Текст 4

American justice? Isn’ t that a contradiction?

William Rees-Mogg

Americans are well aware of the horrid faults of their legal system, but they still like to think that it is the best in the world. Its abuses include plea bargaining, class actions, Hollywood actions, Guantanamo Bay, racism, elected district attorneys looking for votes, hick justice in states such as Arkansas, federal patronage of prosecutors and judges, the politicisation of the Supreme Court, the squalor and brutality of big federal and state prisons and the aggressive ruthlessness of tax and regulatory authorities. In the United States, you can be ruined by the cost of doctors if you get sick and by the cost of lawyers if you get into court.

There are, of course, honourable lawyers and distinguished judges, some of whom are among the best in the world. It is the downside of US law that terrifies Americans and should terrify foreign businessmen.

A British businessman should never become a nonexecutive director of an American company, since the legal fees, in the event of trouble, can be a multiple of the board fees. If threatened with a legal action in the US, one should hire a lawyer who frightens the other side and settle as quickly as possible. If necessary, go to live in a country, such as Russia, which has not signed an extradition treaty with the United States; President Putin will protect you, but you can be sure that the British Government will not.

Before 9/11 Britain had a reasonably fair system of extradition with the United States, which, among other provisions, required any country seeking extradition from Britain to produce prima facie evidence that an offence had indeed been committed. This extradition system exasperated US prosecutors because it was subject to long legal delays. Even British judges shared this impatience; good lawyers could defer extradition for years.

УРОК 2

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Текст 1

TYPES OF CRIME

It is commonly said that everything can be cured by its antibiotic, contraceptive, or preventing measures, but crime can never be cured because it is attached with the human’s nature. It is a psychic problem, a mental disorder that compels people to instigate a warfare against everything which becomes obstruction of one’s life. Usually wrong means are used to win the warfare of wishes and finally called as crime. Breaching a law or social norms comes under the ambit of crime. In present world, a crime is the law breaking activity. When a person commits crime, he is subjected to punishment. Punishment is not announced on the spot, first the matter is investigated and then the accused is punished with witnesses and proofs. Crime can be of many types. Some of them are given below:

Burglary and robbery are the most common form of crimes. People involved in these crimes are due to their deprivation and greed. When their wishes are not come true with their personal constrained resources, they try to snatch everything from other people. Robbers intend to run off with money and precious assets by keeping people at gun point. Sometimes they steal things in the absence of lords. Bank robbery is very tricky but makes a person wealthy. The punishment of robbery is very severe up to the extent of life time jail and sometime be kept in jail for several years. In this case the culprit is released finally.

Kidnapping is very common crime. The people involved in this type of crime shows thrust of money against kidnapping. This is called ransom. Usually child kidnapping is found everywhere. Children can easily be caught while coming back to home from schools. Kidnapping carries the long-lasting animosity between the culprit and affectees. The kidnapper wants to accomplish his desires by doing this act.

Rape is associated with the mental frustration, which is released physically by doing sex forcefully. When a person feel himself deprived and could not be able to fulfill his physical desires with his life partner, he does rape of innocent girls. Rape is the major evil which leads a person to other evils as well. Kidnapping is closely related with rape. Often girls are harassed and trapped in by the tricks of culprit.

Murder is the severe type of crime. Criminals kill people due to their animosities or on other’s behalf on payment. The punishment of murder is death sentence in most of the countries. Nevertheless, some countries charged the culprit with heavy amount and also with death sentence. You would have listened to the phrase “hang up till death”. This phrase tells the intensity of the punishment. Sometimes people are punished as three times hanging up.

Breaking traffic rules is also considered as a crime. Although it is not as much severe as others above mentioned crimes, yet the violation of traffic rules is also a crime. Its punishment is given on the spot by charging fines.

Упражнение 1. Сопоставьте названия уголовных преступлений с их дефинициями. Переведите названия уголовных преступлений на русский язык

Crime	Definition
abduction/kidnapping	taking someone's life through violence
armed robbery	physical assault that occur within the home
arson	extremely cruel and unfair treatment (often towards prisoners)
assault	injuring a child on purpose
attempted murder	lying or cheating for business or monetary purposes
burglary, breaking and entering	using a weapon to steal
child abuse	taking a person to a secret location using force
domestic violence	stealing merchandise from a store
drug trafficking	bringing products into a country secretly and illegally
drunk driving	trying to kill someone (but failing)
fraud	driving after having too much alcohol
hijacking	damaging public or private property (for example with spray paint)
murder/homicide	hurting another person physically
shoplifting	going into another person's home or business with force
smuggling	setting fire to a place on purpose
speeding	holding people in transit hostage (usually on a plane)
terrorism	stealing
theft	trading illegal drugs
torture	breaking the law in business
vandalism	driving beyond the speed limit
white collar crime	acts of crime against a group (political/religious) or another country

Упражнение 2. Сопоставьте термины и их перевод на русский язык. Дайте определение каждому из терминов на английском языке

Punishment (example offence)	Наказание (пример правонарушения)
traffic ticket (speeding, parking)	домашний арест
license suspension (drunk driving)	штраф
Fine (hunting out of season)	тюремное заключения
house arrest(a young offender who is waiting to go to court)	пожизненное тюремное заключение
community service (a youth that steals a car for the first time)	штраф за нарушение правил дорожного движения
jail time (man who assaults his wife)
life in prison (a woman who commits homicide)	лишение прав на управление транспортным средством

Упражнение 3. Выполните перевод с листа текста 1