Part II Continental law systems

Task 1. Warming-up Activity.

1. What is a continental law system?

2. What countries have continental law systems?

Task 2. Read the text. The following sentences (1-8) have been taken out of the text. Fill in the gaps (A-H) with the appropriate sentence.

1) Nineteenth century Europe also saw the decline of several multi-ethnic empires and the rise of nationalism.

2) Canon law had a stronger influence in countries with a less secular ideology than France, such as Spain.

3) French public law has never been codified, and French courts have produced a great deal of case law in interpreting codes that become out of date because of social change.

4) New codes of law developed under the postwar occupation show some influence from Anglo-American common law traditions (such as a statutory form of trust).

5) Legal relations should not be thought of as in any way independent from political relations, which are based on ownership of property.

6) His aim had been to eliminate the confusion of centuries of inconsistent lawmaking by formulating a comprehensive system that would entirely replace existing law.

7) They have resulted from attempts by governments to produce a set of codes to govern every legal aspect of a citizen's life.

8) However, socialist countries in the twentieth century have produced very strong centralized state institutions and complex legal systems alongside them.

Continental Systems

Continental systems are sometimes known as codified legal systems.

A _____ Thus it was necessary for the legislators to speculate quite comprehensively about human behavior rather than simply looking at previous cases. In codifying their legal systems, many countries have looked to the examples of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, whose legislators wanted to break with previous case law, which had often produced corrupt and biased judgments, and to apply new egalitarian social theories to the law. B _____ The lawmakers of new nations sometimes wanted to show that the legal rights of their citizens originated in the state, not in local customs, and thus it was the state that was to make law, not the courts. In order to separate the roles of the legislature and judiciary, it was necessary to make laws that were clear and comprehensive. The lawmakers were often influenced by the model of the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, but the most important models were the codes produced in the seventh century under the direction of the Roman Emperor Justinian. C _____ Versions of Roman law had long influenced many parts of Europe, including the case law traditions of Scotland, but had little impact on English law.

It is important not to exaggerate the differences between these two traditions of law. For one thing, many case law systems, such as California's, have areas of law that have been comprehensively codified. For another, many countries can be said to have belonged to the Roman tradition long before codifying their laws, and large uncodified – perhaps uncodifiable – areas of the law still remain. D _____ The clear distinction between legislature and judiciary has weakened in many countries, including Germany, France and Italy, where courts are able to challenge the constitutional legality of a law made by parliament (judicial review).

Despite this, it is also important not to exaggerate similarities among systems within the Continental tradition. For example, while adopting some French ideas, such as separation of the legislature and judiciary, the late nineteenth century codifiers of German law aimed at conserving customs and traditions peculiar to German history. E _____

Modern Japanese law

Despite a tradition of private law that more closely resembled English principles of judicial precedent, the lawmakers of Meiji Japan decided to adopt criminal and civil codes closely based on the existing French models. However, this rapid import of a new system was to a large extent an attempt to give Japan the appearance of a modernized, even Westernized country, and the way in which justice was actually administered continued to reflect older Japanese principles of refraining wherever possible from formal and open methods of solving disputes. F _____

Socialist legal systems

According to classical Marxism, legal systems in capitalist and pre-capitalist nations were created to reinforce and justify property relations.

G _____ In other words, the law is on the side of those with economic power. Marx theorized that with the coming of socialism, the state, and thus a state-produced system of law, would become irrelevant to social relations and would disappear.

H _____ The leaders of the Soviet Revolution, and hence the governments of many nations that came under Soviet influence, tried to apply socialist ideology to a Continental civil law tradition in as systematic and comprehensive a way as possible. This ideology is clearly stated, and socialist lawmakers criticized both common law and previous Roman civil law systems for masking their own capitalist ideology in apparently neutral, unbiased institutions. Even before the rejection of their socialist traditions, the Soviet republics had started to allow an increase in civil law cases, and a long process of revising existing civil and criminal codes had begun. As separatist movements grew in many parts of the Soviet Union, there was also development in Constitutional law.

Task 3. Find in the text equivalents to the following Russian words and word combinations.

1. свод кодексов

2. управлять

3. порвать с кем-либо или чем-либо

4. зародиться

5. быть доступно кодифицированным

6. утратить актуальность

7. изменения в обществе

8. каноническое право

Task 4. Match the words to their synonyms.

1) to classify a) corrupt

2) to suppose b) to govern

3) venal c) to eliminate

4) prejudiced d) to speculate

5) to remove e) to codify

6) to magnify f) biased

7) to control g) to exaggerate

Task 5. Find in the text antonyms for the following words.

1. rise

2. uncodified

3. modern

4. difference

5. religious

Task 6. Fill in the gaps with the correct prepositions.

1) to be biased _____ smb/smth.

2) a set ______ codes

3) to break _____ smb/smth.

4) to originate _____ smth.

5) to result _____ smth.

6) to become out _____ date

7) to speculate _____ smth.

Task 7. A. Match the English words and expressions to the Russian equivalents.

1. European Union a) государства-члены

2. Treaty of EU b) Европейское сообщество

3. consists of c) зона свободной торговли

4. European Community d) свободное передвижение

5. "the three pillars" e) таможенный союз

6. economic integration f) налагать (что-либо на кого-либо)

7. common market g) «три столпа»

8. free movement h) состоять из

9. free trade area i) Европейский союз

10. Member States j) квоты

11. customs duties k) права человека

12. quotas l) экономическая интеграция

13. frontiers m) гражданство

14. customs union n) таможенные сборы

15. impose on o) дополнительное законодательство

16. secondary legislation p) делегирование инициативы нижним

подразделениям исполнительной власти

17. human rights q) границы

18. subsidiarity r) договор о Европейском союзе

19. citizenship s) единый рынок

B. Read the text about the EU and fill in the gaps with the words and expressions from part A.

The European Union (EU) was created in 1992 by the Treaty on European Union (theTEU), generally called the Maastricht Treaty. The EU _____ three different Communities: the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community), the _____ (the EC, formerly known as the European Economic Community Treaty, or the EEC treaty – also known as the Treaty of Rome), and EURATOM (European Atomic Energy Community Treaty). The EU has what are referred to as _____ . .

Put simply, the original aim of the Community was _____ to create a _____ later defined as a Single Internal Market, in which there could be _____ of goods, persons, services and capital. This was to be achieved by the creation of a _____ where _____ agreed to remove all _____ (import taxes) and _____ (restrictions on the amount of goods imported across Member States), _____ or (borders) between themselves, and a _____ , in which all members agreed to _____ goods coming into the area from non-member states a common level of duty (the Common Customs Tariff, or CCT).

The three sources of EU law arc the Treaties (EC, TEU, etc.), _____ enacted by the EC (such as regulations and directives), and general principles, including fundamental _____ , _____ and _____ of the EU for every national of a Member State.

Task 8. In groups of 4-5 discuss the following questions.

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Continental law systems?

2. What advantages of Continental law systems would you apply to improve the law system of the Russian Federation?

3. Explain the doctrine of "precedent."

4. Which is/are true?

a) Both California and Louisiana have continental systems of law.

b) Most of Canada and the U.S. have common law.

c) Louisiana and Quebec share some legal traditions.

5. How do Continental systems usually differ from common law systems?

6. Why does Japanese law include both common law and Continental law influences?

7. What changes have been taking place in Chinese law?

Task 9. Summarize the text and tell your group mates about:

a) the development of Continental law systems;

b) the factors which influenced the development of Continental law systems;

c) countries that have Continental law systems nowadays.