法律英语-沙丽金版-阅读文本问题答案.docx

Law1.Whats the relationship between civilization and law?The fairness of a nations laws and the extent to which the legal system justly administers the laws is a measure of the enlightenment, humanity, and degree of civilization of its people.2.Whats law?Law consists of the whole body of rules applied and enforced under the authority of established government in determining what conduct is proper and should be permitted and that which should be denied or penalized.3.Can you list the roles of law in society?Without law, there would be anarchy. Law is the means through which society is able to exist by providing protection for the individual; by establishing and maintaining order, health, and safety; by providing a peaceful means of dispute resolution; by providing stability and flexibility in economic relations between people; and by prohibiting conduct destructive to society.4. How can law be best understood?Law is best understood by viewing the legal system as a processa means of pulling together societys needs and goals and translating them into guides for fairness and reasonableness in conduct.5. What are the events that promote the development of the English legal system?Norman Conquest. William replaced the local and highly varied systems of law with a common system of law.6. Why did the people in England petition to the King and what would be the result?Because of the extremely rigid, frequently overly technical procedural requirements of the common-law system, people were sometimes unable to obtain fair relief in the courts. In time, some persons who felt that the form of relief was inadequate petitioned to the King directly.This practice gave rise to a second court system, called the Court of Chancery.7. What was the situation of equity courts in North America?American court systems in the nineteenth century resulted in simplification of judicial procedures and elimination of equity courts as separate courts in most states.8.Was the statutes developed fast in North America? Why?9. What are the disadvantages of statues and the advantages of the common law rules?10. Who has the power to make the ordinances?The legislative body of a municipal corporationLegal System1. What is the relationship between the civil law system and Roman Law?The civil law is based on Roman Law.2. Who is the Justinian and what is his contribution?Byzantium Emperor. Compiling codes after the enthronement3. Which is the primary source of law in Europe, Roman Law or local laws?Local customs4. Why was the concept of codification developed in the 17th and 18th centuries?As an expression of both Natural Law and the ideas of the Enlightenment.5. What did the opponents of codification think about codification of law? Its opponents claimed that codification would result into the ossification of law.6. What is the main feature of common law?Its inclusion of extensive non-statutory law reflecting precedent derived from centuries of judgments by working jurists.7. What is the difference between statutes and regulations?Statues are enacted by a legislature, while regulations are promulgated by executive branch agencies pursuant to a delegation of rule-making authority from a legislature.8. Where should people go if they wanted to apply for injunctions before the 20th century? Why?Courts of equity. Only courts of equity have the authority to do it.9. What is the difference between the selections of judges in civil law countries and that in common law countries?Civil law judges are usually trained and promoted separately from advocates, whereas common law judges are usually selected from accomplished and reputable advocates.10. What are the differences in the criminal procedures of the two major legal systems?In general, the judge in a civil law system plays a more active role in determining the facts of the case. Most civil law countries investigate major crimes using a so-called inquisitorial system. Also, civil law systems rely much more on written argument than oral argument.Court System1. What is the main characteristic of the court system of the United States?Courts are operated in both state and federal governments.2. Are there any uniform rules for creating state courts?No. but it has a general pattern.3. What are the functions of the inferior courts at the bottom of the state judicial hierarchy?Trying minor civil cases involving small sums of money, and minor criminal cases involving light penalties and conducing preliminary hearings in the more serious criminal cases.4. Do all states have the same terminology for courts and judges? Please give examples.No. For examples, a man who sits on the highest court of New Jersey is called a justice of the supreme court of that state, while a man who holds an equivalent position in New York is called a judge of the court of appeals.5. What are the duties of the judges who sit on appellate courts?They do no trial work, being occupied exclusively in hearing appeals. They review the proceedings of trial courts upon the basis of written records. They hear oral arguments and read written arguments, called briefs, in an effort to discover whether errors were committed in the trial court of such a nature as to require reversal of the judgment or a new trial.6. How many tiers of courts are there in the federal court system in the U.S.? What are they?There are three levels of courts: trial, intermediate appellate and top appellate.7. Does each state have a federal trial court? What decides the number of the federal trial court in each state?Each state has at least one United States district court. The population of the district8. What types of cases will be tried by federal courts?Prosecutions for federal crimes civil claims based upon federal law civil claims between citizens of civil actions.9. Which authority has the power to create federal circuit courts? Congress10. Does the Supreme Court of the U.S. review all the cases appealed? Dose the Supreme Court of the U.S. have the power to review all the decisions made by the state highest courts?No. Yes.Constitution1. What are usually established in a constitution?A constitution establishes the rules and principles by which an organization, or political entity, is governed. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution, which defines the fundamental political principles and establishes the power and duties of each government.2. What are the examples that show the limitation imposed by the constitution to the organizations in the United States?An example from the constitutional law of nation-states would be a provincial government in a federal state trying to legislate in an area exclusively enumerated to the federal government in the constitution.3. What are the relationships regulated by the U.S. Constitution?The relationship among institutions of the state. In a basic sense the relationship among the executive, legislative and the judiciary, but also the relationship of institutions within those branches.4. How do you describe an uncodified constitution?An uncodified constitution is one that is not contained in a single document, consisting of several different sources, which may be written or unwritten.5. Why is an unwritten constitution not an accurate synonym for uncodified constitution?Because all modern democratic constitutions consist of some written sources,6. What do the codified and uncodified constitutions respectively result from?Codified constitutions are usually the product of dramatic political change, such as revolution. Uncodified constitutions are the product of an “evolution” of laws and conventions over centuries.7. Is it easy to amend a constitution? Why or why not?No. an extraordinary procedure is required for constitutional amendments involve some procedures that makes obtaining a constitutional amendment more difficult than passing a simple law.8. What happens if there are conflicts between the constitution and a statute in a country using codified constitution?All or part of the statue can be declared ultra vires by a court and struck down as unconstitutional.9. What are the sources of uncodified constitution of Britain?Written sources: e.g. constitutional statues enacted by the Parliament and also unwritten sources: constitutional conventions, observation of precedents, royal prerogatives, customs and traditions.10. Are there any differences between the constitutional law and statutory law in states using uncodified constitutions?No. Both can be altered or repealed by a simple majority in Parliament.Criminal Law1. Who do ordinary people think of crimes?People think of crimes as acts that threaten public safety, security or morality. Crime can be defined as anti-social conduct that is sufficiently serious to require state intervention and punishment.2. What is the accurate definition of crime?A crime is any act or omission that is contrary to the criminal law.3. What are the elements that may establish a crime?Criminal liability, guilty mind, 4. What is the standard of proof for the prosecution to prove that a person is guilty?Beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the actus reus of the crime, while at the same time having the required mens rea5. What does the actus reus include?Conduct, circumstance and consequence6. Will all omissions lead to liability?No7. What are the circumstances where criminal liability has been imposed for an omission?8. What is shared by the cases about omission? A defendant has accepted or been placed under a duty to act, and his/her omission constitutes a failure to discharge that duty the omission is no longer pure.9. In what kind of cases is causation required?The defendants conduct caused the unlawful consequence10. How is the subjective nature of criminal liability proved?Show a criminal state of mindCriminal Procedure1. What is the function of criminal procedure law?The law governing the series of procedures through which the substantive criminal law is enforced.2. What are the sources of criminal procedure law?The United States Constitution, (2) federal statutes (3) the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (d) local district court rules (e) rulings of federal courts based on their common law decisional authority or their supervisory authority over the administration of criminal justice in the federal courts (f) the internal regulations of the Department of Justice and other agencies involved in the administration of the federal process.3. What is a known offence?Where the police conclude that a crime may well have been committed, it will be recorded as a “known offence”4. Who has the power to conduct investigation before arrest?Police, prosecutorial and other non-police investigations 5. What are usually done in the process of booking?The arrestees name, the time of his arrival, the offense for which he was arrested are noted in the police “log”, the arrestee also will be photographed and fingerprinted.6. How many types of charging instruments are there in the felony cases?Complaint information, indictment7. Are there any differences between First Appearance and Preliminary Hearing?8. What will be done in the process of a grand jury review?Determining whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a trial on the charge sought by the prosecution. If a majority of the grand jurors conclude that the prosecutions evidence is sufficient, they will issue the indictment requested by the prosecutor.9. What are the characteristics of criminal trial?（a）the presumption of defendants innocence (b) the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt (c) the right of the defendant not to take the stand (d) the exclusion of evidence obtained by the state in an illegal manner10. How many types of sentences are used in criminal cases?Financial sanctions, some form of release into the community, and incarceration in a jail or prisonCivil Procedure1. How do people resolve their disputes?One is to engage in “self-help”, by which you redress the wrong personally. Another is to contact the person who harmed you and demand some compensation or other remedies.2. Which way of settling disputes is acceptable in the society?Litigation3. Why is litigation a publicly funded dispute resolution?The taxpayers provide the courtroom, the judge, and the instrumentalities by which the dispute is resolved.4. Who usually initiates a civil litigation, a government or an individual?Individual5. Is civil litigation time consuming? Why?Yes. Because there are many more parts to the process than the trial,6. Why is the question of forum selection important?The decision implicates a variety of important doctrines. And there are questions of tactics and ideal for the defendant.7. What should be decided by a plaintiff and his /her lawyer before filing a suit?What to put in the complaint.8. Where can the elements of claims be found?Substantive law9. What is the function of civil procedure law?Civil procedure provides the mechanismthe processby which disputes over such substantive claims are resolved. It provides a theoretically content-neutral mechanism for resolving disagreements. It establishes the method by which someone would vindicate a right given to her by the law.10. What are the stages in civil litigation?Pleadings, motions, discovery, possible pretrial adjudication, conferences, and meetingsTorts1. What are the functions of tort law?The purpose of torts is to compensate an injured party through the award of damages for the injuries incurred during a tortious act.2. What is the difference between a tort and a crime?The difference is that a tort is a wrong against an individual, whereas a crime is a wrong against society as a whole.3. How do you prove the intent of a defendant?Intent is most often proved through circumstantial evidence: the defendants conduct, in the context of his or her surroundings and what he or she presumably knew and perceived.4. What are the elements of false imprisonment?(a) Intent to confine a person within a certain area (b) actual confinement(c) Awareness of plaintiff of the confinement or injury to plaintiff due to confinement; and (d) Prevention of exit or no safe exit possible by plaintiff5. What needs to be proved in case of trespass?An act, coupled with the intent to cause entry by the defendant, and an invasion of the plaintiffs land6. What does standard of care mean?As a general rule, all persons are under a duty to conduct themselves in such a manner as not to create unreasonable risks of physical harm to others.7. How do you make defense for a negligent conduct?Contributory or comparative negligence and assumption of the risk8. What is the difference between the two types of comparative negligence?Pure comparative negligence simply means that if a plaintiff is 90 percent at fault, he or she can still recover 10 percent. Another name for partial comparative negligence is 50percent rule, which means that if the plaintiff is more than 50 percent at fault, he or she cannot recover. 9. In what situation is the defense of assumption of risk applied?The plaintiffs own actions trigger this defense, which is the plaintiffs knowing and voluntary consent to encountering a known danger.10. Can a plaintiff get recovery if the defendant has no fault under strict liability doctrine? Why?Yes. Legal fault stems from a deviation from a standard of conduct needed to protect society and its citizens.Contact1. In what situation is there an implied contract? An implied contract is one that is inferred from the conduct of the parties. 2. What is the difference between bilateral contracts and unilateral contracts?A bilateral contract is one in which the parties exchange promises to do some future act. A unilateral contract is one in which one party acts immediately in response to the offer. The response is in the form of immediate action rather than a mutual exchange of promises.3. What is the difference between a void contract and a voidable contract?A void contract is a nullity from its beginning, and damages do not result. A voidable contract is one that is binding until it is disaffirmed or canceled by the party with the authority to do so.4. What are the key elements for the formation of a contract?(1) the capacity of parties; (2) offer and acceptance (3) Consideration 5. How does a corporation enter into a contract?The law creates a legal fiction that corporations are persons. 6. Are the shareholders of a corporation involved in the contract concluded by the corporation?No. This device allows corporations to sue and be sued and to conduct business transactions as entities without involving individual shareholders.7. What may decide the capacity of a person to enter into a contract?The age of the individual or from a partys being mentally incapable of understanding the ramifications 后果of the contract8. Are there any special provisions about minors making contract? What are they?Minors are under an obligation to return any consideration received under the contract9. How can misunderstandings about terms in complex contracts be avoided?Complex contracts often contain sections that clearly define certain terms.10. How do you decide whether the two parties of a contract have the mutual agreement?On an objective standard, and the subjective intent of the parties is usually irrelevantLaw of Corporation1. Why was the corporation proved to be an ideal instrument for the industrial development?It could raise large amounts of capital from numerous investors and yet provid