WHAT IS LAW?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 883.

Read and translate the text using your vocabulary list and define the main idea of this text.

Reading

Lead-in

WHAT IS LAW?

Unit 1.

Society cannot exist without law. People need rules to regulate relations between them and to end disputes.

Answer the following questions:

1. What is law?

2. Who creates laws?

3. How does law help people?

4. What can we call people who break law?

5. How can people break law?

Law is a body of rules supported by the power of government. It governs the behavior of all members of society. It is not possible to have a society without laws, as there would be anarchy in society then.

Governments make laws and enforce them against all citizens within their power. They have two motives in making and enforcing laws. One is social control; the other is the implementation of justice. To establish social control governments use public law and civil law. Public law ensures the authority of the government itself and civil law provides framework for interaction among people. Justice is a concept that most people feel is very important but few are able to define. Sometimes a just decision is simply a decision that most people feel is fair.

New laws appear all the time as our life is changing very fast. But no country has been successful in producing laws, which are entirely satisfactory. Ordinary people start thinking about law only when everyday

informal ways of settling disputes break down. When we buy a train ticket, a lawyer may tell us it represents a contract with legal obligations, but to most of us it is just a ticket that gets us on the train. If our neighbour plays loud music late at night, we will probably try to discuss the matter with him rather than consulting the police, lawyers or courts. Only when we are injured in a train accident or when a neighbour refuses to behave reasonably, we start thinking about the legal implications of our everyday activities.

Even so, some transactions in modern society are so complex that few of us would risk making them without first seeking legal advice. We use it when we buy or sell a house, set up a business, or decide whom to give our property to when we die. On the whole, it seems that people all over the world are becoming more and more accustomed to using legal means to regulate their relations with each other.

As countries cooperate more and more and have an increasing number of common global problems to solve, there are attempts to internationalize legal standards, so that the same legal principles could be applied to all countries and people. When law helps people to reach just agreements, it is regarded as a good thing. However, when it involves time and money and shows people's inability to cooperate informally, law seems to be an evil — but a necessary one that everyone should have a basic knowledge of.