Poems by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a Cloud She dwelt among the untrodden ways
That floats on high o'er Vales and Hills, Beside the springs of Dove, When all at once I saw a crowd A host of dancing Daffodils; A maid whom there were none to Along the Lake, beneath the trees, Ten thousand dancing in the breeze. praise The waves beside them danced, but they And very few to love; Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: -- A violet by a mossy stone A poet could not but be gay Half hidden from the eye! In such a laughing company: - Fair as a star when only one I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought Is shining in the sky. What wealth the show to me had brought: She lived unknown, and few could know For oft when on my couch I lie When Lucy ceased to be; In vacant or in pensive mood, But she is in her grave, and, oh, They flash upon that inward eye The difference to me! Which is the bliss of solitude, And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the Daffodils.
Wordsworth’s portrait (28 years old)
British law in brief
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to tell you about the essentials of British law and its history.
The British legal system is utterly complicated and confusing to many Britons, to say nothing of people who live outside the United Kingdom and are used to modern and more clear judicial systems. However, its modifications are widespread throughout the world.
First of all, it should be said that there is no unified legal system in the United Kingdom, since separate judicial system exists in Northern Ireland, together with that for England and Wales. Before 2003, Scotland had had a separate legal system and hierarchy of courts, but Tony Blair’s cabinet has replaced it with the English one.
Further, Great Britain is acknowledged to have no written constitution, or a single document laying down the political order of the state. The British constitution is unwritten, its rules are scattered over the various sources of law. It is formed partly by statute law (Acts of Parliament), partly by common law (a number of legal opinions), and partly by customs and conventions, having been preserved for centuries. Every part of the Constitution has the same force; therefore, Freedom of Information Act and the tradition of celebrating Guy Fawkes Night are equal from the legal point of view!
The laws in Britain are officially called ‘the Acts of Parliament’ (for example, the Act of Settlement (1701)). There are dozens of Acts referred to the Constitution: Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus Act, the Bill of Rights, the Act of Settlement, the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland, and a plenty of statutes concerning political matters which were adopted later. (The Acts of Union between England and Ireland still remain in force too, in spite of the independence of Ireland). Magna Carta 1215, considered as ‘the cornerstone of the English freedom’, established some limitations of the King’s power; the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 ordered judges to release unlawfully detained people and to serve writs on people arrested at their request; the Bill of Rights 1689 set out the political rights of Parliament and British subjects; the Act of Settlement laid down the rules of succession to the Throne.
Another source is customs and conventions. Many of them regulate the parliamentary ceremonies meanwhile some conventions are crucial for British political set-up. There is no law forbidding the Queen to veto a bill, and such law will never be adopted; but, according to the constitutional custom, monarchs endorse all bills having been passed through Parliament by their signature. The Cabinet is established and operates the country under the customs also. Before the political rights of the citizens had been enshrined in Human Rights Act in 1998, the British citizens had been enjoying them on the ground of precedents and conventions. So, the importance of customary law in Great Britain is evident for you now.
The third source of law in Britain, and probably the most important one, is common law, also known as case law or judicial precedents. Originally, the term ‘common law’(jus commune) was used as an antonym to the ‘local law’(lex terrae) and defined that part of church law which had force all over the Christian world. But the modern common law is the outcome of the past decisions and practices based upon customs and reason. These successive court decisions built up over the decades formed precedents from which later judges could deduce the basic principles that were to be applied to new cases. In other words, the decisions of higher courts bind the judges of lower courts, who are obliged to follow it. It is the base of legal system not in the UK only, but also in former colonies of the British Empire (including the USA, Canada, India, and Israel).
Surely, the precedent system is incredibly involved and too strict. It can develop new rules, or modify the existing ones, but if a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, judges are to adhere to the system of arguments used in the prior decision. Those problems became evident as early as the 15th century. To soften these disadvantages, the Court of Chancery (named after the Lord Chancellor and judging according to the ethical principles) was created. The rules have been worked out by that court are known as equity. In the 19th century, the Court of Chancery was run down because of associations with red tape and sweeteners, parodied in Dickens’ novel “Bleak House” and finally closed in 1873. Nevertheless, equity still regulates some types of contracts and liability issues.
Common law cannot be assessed better as or worse than the other legal systems. On the one hand, it is conservative and sometimes fails to meet the needs of a changing society; on the other hand, it encourages consistency and continuity of judicial approach.
There are two main branches of law in the United Kingdom – civil law and criminal law.
Civil law is aimed at reconciliation between parties or obtaining compensation. It is usually an individual or a company, not the state, which initiates civil proceedings. The plaintiff (a person suing another person) serves a writ (document stating the nature of the complaint) on the defendant. If the defendant decides to contest the claim, he ‘enters an appearance’ by informing the court to this effect and the relevant documents are circulated to all parties. After the papers have been prepared (and amended if necessary), the trial is launched. The court also decides the expenses of the action (sometimes they may be larger than the property in dispute itself), and the loser must pay both his own and the opponent’s expenses. Titles of civil actions follow the pattern A v. B, for instance, where A stands for a plaintiff, B for a defendant, and v. – for ‘versus’.
The British subjects and corporations operate under common law (no surprise) and various statutes, because there is no civil code in Great Britain. Every statute is supported with precedents emerging when it is implemented. If speaking of family law, common law recognizes husbands or wives that are not wedded but have lived for some time with their partners. They are called ‘common law spouses’.
English criminal law is a particular and a very interesting topic of speech. The Acts of Parliament play more significant role in criminal justice than common law. As crimes pose a threat to society as a whole, it is usually the state which initiates proceedings against an individual or a group and a criminal action is brought against the accused in the name of the Queen (for example, R. v. H., where R. is means ‘Regina’).
Medieval criminal law in England lingered for centuries. And the standards of it were unbelievably cruel. Royal statutes of those days provided for death penalty for hundreds of offences, and people sentenced to it were hanged, burnt, boiled alive, etc. People convicted of high treason (crimes against the Throne; there was also petty treason, i.e. a murder of husband or master committed by his wife or servant) suffered the most terrific punishment: they were to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Those who had avoided capital punishment could be imprisoned or exiled to scarcely populated colonies. It’s quite paradoxical that the most advanced European country, both in economic and political terms, kept and even toughened the Draconian laws of the Middle Ages. The state of affairs in this sphere has been described by Mark Twain in his book ‘The Prince and The Pauper’, as well as by Dickens in the story about Oliver Twist.
Today, of course, the situation has changed completely. During the 20th century, the reforms in criminal law were carried out. Capital punishment was abolished in 1969. Two ears before the obsolete division of crimes to felonies and misdemeanors disappeared. Felonies were considered to be crimes punishable by death at the beginning of the 19th century, and all the rest were known as misdemeanors. As a result, a crook who had committed his crime in a church was tried for felony, while a drug dealer was tried for misdemeanor! Now the most common punishments are probation (certain restrictions imposed on the offender remaining free), community service (sweeping floor, for instance), and imprisonment. The person placed on probation may be obliged to attend church on Sundays, refrain from visiting nightclubs and bars, etc.
The legal profession is among the most prestigious and well-paid ones in the UK. There are two categories of lawyers in this country, barristers and solicitors. Of these, barristers form the senior branch. The word ‘barrister’ comes from ‘bar’, which means ‘a bench’. Only barristers have the right to fight a case in the higher courts. Every barrister belongs to one of the four Inns of Court. They must wear wigs and mantles like they did in the Middle Ages. A barrister can communicate with his clients only through a solicitor. Solicitors are more recent development than barristers. They consult their clients, prepare the cases for audience, and appear for their clients in the lower courts. Solicitors practice mainly in private law firms, meanwhile barristers are freelancers. Both barristers and solicitors have their own governing bodies, the Council of Legal Education for barristers and the Law Society for solicitors; however, the order of joining the corporations is roughly the same.
List of sources for the reports
Lake District
Голицынский Ю. Б. Великобритания: Пособие по страноведению. – СПб.: КАРО, 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_district
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Poets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbria
http://www.golakes.co.uk/
Regional Languages in Great Britain
Левашова В. А. Britain Today: Life and Institutions. – М., 2001.
Кубьяс Л. Н., Кудачкина И. В. Английский язык для специалистов-международников. – М.: МГИМО(У) МИД России. 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_revival
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language
http://www.burns-night.ru/
Building the Empire
Голицынский Ю. Б. Великобритания: Пособие по страноведению. – СПб.: КАРО, 2008.
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%92%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B8#.D0.92.D0.B8.D0.BA.D1.82.D0.BE.D1.80.D0.B8.D1.8F_.281837.E2.80.941901.29
Edward VIII’s Abdication
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII_of_the_United_Kingdom
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII_abdication_crisis
William Wordsworth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Poets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wandered_Lonely_as_a_Cloud
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/She_Dwelt_Among_the_Untrodden_Ways
British Law in Brief
Голицынский Ю. Б. Великобритания: Пособие по страноведению. – СПб.: КАРО, 2008.
Левашова В. А. Britain Today: Life and Institutions. – М., 2001.
Правовые системы стран мира. – М., 2003.
http://www.actofunion.ie/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074s20#synopsis
http://www.bdlawservice.com/books/the_history.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_(law)
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered