旅鼠法律英语入门教学内容

2021年1月18日发(作者：高适的别董大)
法律英语入门（中英双语）教学内容 选课人数37人 任课教师 韩忠全

Unit 1 Introduction to Law
Text ⅠWhat Is Law?
Dictionary work
Evict marijuana jurisprudence admonition justify enforce pretentious
temporal legitimacy coercion conformity avenge implement contend induce
administrative litigation adjudication penal compensatory therapeutic
conciliatory restitution debtor creditor accusatory deviant sanction
Pre-reading questions
1. How do you understand law?
2. What do you think law deals with?
3. Why is law important in our social life?
Definition of law
Julius Stone: law is necessarily an abstract term.
Cardozo: a principle of conduct so established as to justify a prediction with
reasonably certainty that it will be enforced by the courts if its authority is challenged.
Holmes: judges make the law on the basis of past experience.
Max Weber: an order will be called law if it is externally guaranteed by the
probability that coercion (physical or psychological), to bring about conformity or
avenge violation, will be applied by a staff of people holding themselves especially
ready for that purpose.
Donald black: law is essentially governmental social control.
Four styles of social control are represented in law
Penal
Compensatory
Therapeutic
Conciliatory
Hart: law can be analyzed sociologically as a method of doing something.
Exercises
Translation
1. As a kind of rule or norm for conduct, either customs or laws are both social
ideology and can not be separated from practical experience. The law is not only a set
of behavioral rules, but also a means to clarify responsibility and promote social
integrity (justice).
2. The laws are some rules made by the State, ensured to be implemented by the state
force. They regulate the rights and obligations and are of universal effect to the
society as a whole.

Text Ⅱfunctions of law
Resolving disputes
Providing order and predictability in society
Protecting individuals and property
Providing for the general welfare

Unit 2 Sources of Law
Text ⅠSources of English Law
Dictionary work
Equity operative institution accession directive implementation binding populace
initiative subordinate computation refinement discount hierarchy implicit
discretionary presumption doctrine analogous venerable antiquity commentary
crystallization immemorial
Pre-reading questions
1. What do you think are the possible sources of English law?
2. Which, among them, are the main sources and which are subsidiary ones?
Community law
Legislation
Public acts (government bills private members bills)
Private acts
Delegated legislation
Case law
Legal textbook
Custom
Match the words in column A with the corresponding definitions in column B.
1. A bill which has passed through the various legislative steps required for it and
which has become law (a. act)
2. Fairness (e)
3. A formal agreement between two or more states signed by official representatives
of each state. ()
4.a case which establishes legal principles to a certain set of facts ,coming to a certain
conclusion, and which is to be followed from that point on when similar or identical
facts are before a court.(ent)
5. A collective term for all judges. (ary)
6. To give part of one’s powers or rights to another person or body of a lower grade.
(te)
7. To rule against upon review by virtue of a higher authority. (le)
8. A long-established practice that is generally recognized as having the force of law.
()
9. A civil or criminal suit or action. ()
10. An assemblage of the nobility, clergy, and common called together by the British
sovereign as the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom. (ment)
11. A proposed law. ()
12. Having broken a law or disobeyed a rule. ()
13. Of or related to a court of law, judges, or their judgments. (al)
14. A law enacted by the legislative branch of a government. (e)
15. Having supreme authority. (ign)
Text ⅡTypes of Law
1. Substantive laws
Procedural laws
2. Public law
Private law
3. Civil law
Criminal law
4. Civil law
Common law (case law)
5. Law in the United States
Constitutional law
Case law
Statutory law
Executive orders
Administrative law































Unit 3 Legal Systems
Text ⅠIntroduction to Legal Systems
Dictionary work
Romano-Germanic civil law common law Islamic private law customary law
institutionalization Norman Conquest classical antisocial collective ownership
Muslim Koran prophet Bolshevik
Pre-reading questions
1. How many legal systems are there in the world?
2. What kind of legal system do we have in China?
Romano-Germanic System
The Romano-Germanic, or civil, law refers to legal science that has developed on the
basis of Roman civil law.
Common-Law System
Common Law is characteristic of the English system, which developed after the
Norman Conquest 1066.
Socialist Legal System
Islamic Legal System
Text ⅡIntroduction to the Legal System of Canada
Sources and Hierarchy of Law
1. The Canadian constitution. It is the supreme source of law.
2. International treaties. They are not automatically part of the law of
the land, but are usually given effect through the adoption of
legislation by the appropriate legislative body.
3. Federal /provincial laws. Canadians are governed by statutes and
regulations partly and partly by common law.
4. Judicial opinions
5. Custom customary rules
Role of the Legislature in the Law- Making Process
Federal. The federal parliament: the governor, the senate, the House of
Commons
Provincial legislatures
Role of the Executive in the Law-Making Process
Federal. The cabinet is the government’s principal decision making body,
directs the government and defines its provision, implements laws, adopts
related regulations and manages the government administration.
Provincial legislatures. The executive council plays the same role as the
cabinet at the federal level.
Role of Courts and Tribunals
1. Supreme court of Canada. The general court of appeal for Canada is the
supreme court of Canada.
2. Federal court. The power of the federal court of Canada is limited to
certain matters arising under federal jurisdiction.
3. Provincial court the highest court in the provincial system is the
provincial court of appeal.
4. Superior court. It is a court of ordinary law which hears all cases.
5. “Lower courts” provincial court per se.
6. Administrative tribunals
Exercise
Questions
1. How many sources of law are there in Canada? What are they?






































Unit 4 Morality and Equality in Law
Text ⅠLaw and Morality
Dictionary work
Consensually subscribe differentiation monolithic ideological
maintenance status quo apartheid segregation divergence diffuse shun
liability appropriation discretion malice tort assault trespass
defamation incorporate convict attribute capacity contingent
What is Morality?
A society’s code of morality may be defined as a set of beliefs, values,
principles and standards of behavior and such codes are found in all social
groups.
Law and Morality: Divergences and Similarities
1. Law and morality have important points of divergence.
Legal rules are backed by official state sanctions and procedures.
Moral rules rest upon more diffuse and generalized informal sanctions.
2. Particular behavior may offend both legal and moral codes.
3. Behavior may be defined by some people as immoral, though that behavior
is not unlawful (telling lies).
The Relationship between Law and Morality
Conditions of liability may conveniently be divided into general and
specific conditions.
Exercise
Topics for discussion
1. When in conflict, which should be considered first, morality or law?
Why?
Text Ⅱ Equal Employment Opportunity
Discrimination is based on race, color, national origin, sex, or religion.
These outlawed areas of discriminations are called protected classes.
The employer may deliberately intend to discriminate against an employee
or prospective employee. This kind of discrimination is called disparate
– treatment discrimination.
The employer’s intention to discriminate may be hidden behind an
ostensibly neutral reason. This kind of discrimination is call disparate
–impact discrimination.
A victim of discrimination is entitled to receive back pay and attorney’s
fees.
The civil rights act of 1964 also created the equal employment opportunity
commission.
The civil rights act of 1866 and 1871, they concern racial discrimination
only.
Other acts also protect people from unfair discrimination.
Questions and Discussions
1. What are the two types of illegal discrimination practiced by employers?
What are the differences between them?

Unit 5 law and society
Text Ⅰevolution of legal system
Dictionary work
Mechanism alteration differentiate magnitude agrarian permeated dogma subsequent
rescind impetus elaborate mediate mitigate deviance proliferate enactment
pervasiveness resonate status quo momentous attribute
Pre-reading questions
1. How did people maintain social order in primitive societies?
2. What is the proper role for government to play in ruling a country?
Primitive Legal Systems
Primitive legal systems are typically found in hunting and gathering and simple
agrarian societies. The laws are not written or codified. They are permeated by
customs, traditions, religious dogmas and values.
Transitional Legal Systems
Transitional legal systems are characteristic of advanced agrarian and early industrial
societies where the economic, educational and political subsystems are increasingly
differentiated from kinship relationships.
Modern Legal Systems
Formal norms and sanctions are necessary to central behavior so that society can
continue to function in an orderly and predictable fashion.
Exercise
Topics for discussion
1. Do you believe that in the future society, law as an instrument of social control will
finally disappear? Why or why not?
Text ⅡPrinciples of The Rule of Law
Definition of the rule of law
The importance of the rule of law
The legal or jurisprudence view of rule of law. The legal philosophy of
the rule of law contains five major principles regarding the conduct of
government.
Questions and Discussions
1. Law and government, which one is more important in maintaining social order?
Why?











Unit 6 Legislation
Text ⅠLegislation in the United Kingdom
Dictionary work
Predominant contemporary substantive imperative secure incur additional alternative
recommendation undergo extensive critical democratically apparent jeopardy
operational categorize distinguish rationalize
Pre- reading Questions
1. What are the common sources of legislative proposals in the UK?
2. What’s the legislative process in the UK?
Legislation is the predominant form of law making in contemporary times. The
process through which an act is passed by parliament is itself a long one but before
concentrating on that process some attention should be focused on the
pre-parliamentary process through which the substantive content of the act is
generated.
Sources of Legislation
There are various sources of legislative proposals.
The majority arise from government departments in pursuit of their policies in relation
to their allocated area of responsibility.
The decision as to which Bills are to be placed before Parliament in any Session is
under the effective control of a Cabinet committee known as the legislation
committee.
The role of the individual Member of Parliament, acting through the process for the
enactment of private members bills, should not be forgotten.
Alternative sources for proposed legislation are the recommendations of independent
commissions and committees such as the law commission or the Law Reform
Committee and the Criminal Law Reform Committee.
The Legislative Process
Before any legislative proposal, known at that stage as a bill, can become an act of
Parliament it must proceed through and be approved by both Houses of Parliament
and must receive the Royal Assent.
A bill must be given three readings in both the House of Commons and the House of
Lords.
When a bill is introduced in the commons it undergoes five distinct procedures.
1. It receives its first reading.
2. General principles are subject to extensive debate. A vote may be taken on its
merits.
3. It is sent for consideration by a standing committee.
4. The standing committee reports the bill back to the House for the consideration of
any amendments made by it.
5. Further debate may take place; it is restricted strictly to matters relating to the
content.
No statute becomes law unless it has received the Royal Assent.
An act of Parliament comes into effect on the date of the Royal Assent. Unless there is
any provision to the contrary in the act itself.
Types of Legislation
There are two distinct types of legislation: the Public Act and the Private Act.
The former relates to questions which affect the general public whereas the latter
relates to the powers and interests of particular individuals or institutions.
Public Bills can be further categorized into government Bills and private members
Bills.
Acts of Parliament can also be distinguished on the basis of their function. Some are
designed to initiate new legislation to cover new areas of activity previously not
governed by legal rules; but other acts are aimed at rationalizing or amending existing
legislative provisions.
Exercise
Topics for discussion
1. Can you summarize the legislative process in the UK?
Text Ⅱ the Enactment of Laws in the United States
The Enactment of Federal Laws
The Enactment of State Laws
The Supremacy Clause



























Unit 7 Justice
Text ⅠJudicial Independence
Dictionary work
Autonomous stricture implement detrimental inroad ethos closed-shop ombudsman
sleaze sovereignty spurious scandal allegation
Pre-reading questions
1. What is judicial independence?
The Meaning
The mere absence of interference by the executive in the trial of individual cases.
They asserted the right of the legal system to operate independently, as an
autonomous system apart from the general control of the state, with the judiciary
controlling its operation, or at least being free from the dictates and strictures of
central control.
The Tension
The relationship between the executive and the judiciary is proper.
The second half of the 20
th
century had seen the executive make substantial inroads
into the independence of the judiciary and warned against the dangers of an executive
–centered court system in which the judges have no effective protection against
executive interference and in which the disposal of cases took priority over the
attainment of justice.
The tension inherent in the relationship between the courts and the executive
government has taken on an even more fundamental constitutional aspect in relation
to the development of the process of judicial review, by means of which the courts
assert the right to subject the actions and operations of the executive to the control of
the law in such a way as to prevent the executive from abusing its power.
Parliament
The committee was set up to consider, amongst other things, ways in which either
actual or perceived corruption within the legislative body could be controlled.
Commissioner for public standards, and Ombudsman, should be appointed to enforce
controls over the activities of MPs was resisted by some members of the Commons on
the grounds that nobody outside of Parliament could be given the authority to regulate
Parliament.
Topics for discussion
1. The function of the judiciary
2. The relationship between the judiciary and parliament.
Text ⅡThe English Court Structure
English courts are arranged in a structure according to three sets of
criteria.
First. Criminal proceedings are brought by the state. Civil proceedings
are brought by private individuals against other individuals.
A second distinguishing feature is often said to lie in the different aims
of the two branches of the law. The traditional aims of the criminal law
are the apprehension and disposition of wrongdoers, whilst the aims of