Reading 2: The Language of the Law

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 501.

Pre-reading task. Read words. Mind the stress. A):

΄separate so΄licitor em΄ploy

΄barristerde΄scend ,prose΄cution

΄notary a΄ttorney a΄ccomplice

΄counselre΄tain for΄bid

΄summarisebe΄yond su΄ggest

΄verdict con΄duct ,summing-΄up

΄evidence per΄mit pro΄fession

B) Complete the word building table.

1. Read the text about Legal English and answer the questions.

1. Why are the English proud of their legal system?

2. What is the difference between solicitor and barrister?

3. What are the Bar and the Bench, and why are they called so?

4. What is a jury, and what is their function in court?

5. Explain the following legal terms: beyond reasonable doubt, to turn the King/Queen's evidence, leading question, cross-examination and summing-up.

One of the proudest boasts of the Englishman is of the British justice and the English legal system. In their pride they follow the tradition of Rome, but in their law they owe less to the Romans than almost any country in Europe. Much less, for instance, than Scotland, which has a quite different system of law from England. This peculiar English system has its own peculiar terms: to understand them you must understand a little of the system itself.

In England the legal profession is really two separate professions: solicitors and barristers. The solicitor is probably the more ancient profession. He descends from the notaries and attorneys of Elizabethan times and indeed even earlier. Only on the introduction of a solicitor can a client employ a barrister, who is referred to as a counsel. The solicitor summarises his client's case for counsel, and the document on which he does so is called a brief. A barrister retained by a solicitor for a client is said to be briefed for him.

It is from the ranks of the Bar, as barristers corporately are called, that judges are chosen. The Bar referred to is a physical bar (it is actually a barrier [ ]) in the Courts, beyond which no one may pass except the privileged Queen's Counsel who have been called within the bar. Judges, thus, are not themselves a separate profession; they are barristers who have been elevated to the Bench, itself name derived from the part of the Court where they sit.

The judge decides the interpretation of the law, but, in serious criminal cases, all questions of fact are decided by a jury. Juries may also be found in civil cases, that is disputes other than criminal trials. By means of the jury, the man in the street enters upon the legal scene. In England a jury in a criminal case can return only one of two verdicts: Guilty or Not Guilty.

In order to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt the prosecution calls evidence. Since the prosecution is conducted in the name of the Queen / King, a criminal who decides to give evidence against his accomplices is to turn the King/Queen's evidence.

In examining his witnesses counsel is forbidden to ask questions which suggest the answers he wants. Such questions are called leading questions and are permitted only in cross-examinations, that is, the procedure by which, after he/she has given his/her evidence-in-chief, a witness is further questioned by counsel for the other side. In this way the full meaning and value of the evidence is tested.

After all the evidence has been given the judge summarises the case, both law and facts, for the benefit of the jury. This is called the summing-up.

2. Match the words with their definitions.