3.

THE NEED FOR CLEARER MENTAL HEALTH LAWS

3.1. The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws
3.2. Grammar
Specific objectives
Summary
Self-evaluation tests
Bibliography
Specific objectives:
At the end of the chapter you will be able to:
analyze the problem of the mentally incapacitated people, who need
very clear and complex laws to protect their interests
read and translate texts, thus learning more new words from the field
of Law and International Relations and using them in sentences and
texts of your own
correctly use the Subjunctive Mood
Estimated time for individual study: 4 hours

Alina Chec

The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws

Read the following text:

The Law Commission in Great Britain shares the view of mental health law
specialists that those who care for the mentally incapacitated operate in a
vacuum of uncertainty over their responsibilities and the decision-making
powers available to them.
1. As a result of the ambiguities, lawyers in the field suggest that often the

rights of the incapacitated people can be trampled over by overprotective carers

or, on the other hand, basic needs and rights can be ignored.
2. The Commission proposes that legislation be drafted which would primarily

state that: 'Anyone who has care of an incapacitated person (or who has
reasonable grounds for believing a person in his or her care to be incapacitated)
may do what is reasonable in the circumstances to care for that person and to
safeguard and promote his or her personal welfare.'
3. Within that general legal framework carers would be under a stated

obligation 'to act in the best interests of an incapacitated person.'

4. Carers would also be required to allow and to encourage the person in their

care to participate as much as possible in the decision-making process.

5. There would also be a formalised principle mentioned within the legislation

recognising that the course least restrictive of the incapacitated person's

freedom of decision and action is likely to be in his or her best interests.
6. The Commission is also recommending that a new judicial body be created

to combine the current functions of the court of protection - which is primarily

concerned with property and affairs - with similar functions in relation to
matters of personal care and welfare. But such a body would also be obliged to
operate under the same guiding principles governing individual carers - that the
wishes of the person concerned be taken into account and they be included in
the decision-making process as much as possible.
(from Commission Calls /or Clearer Mental Health Laws, by
D. Keating, in the Gazette, 3 March, 1993, p. 7)
For a better understanding of grammar and for vocabulary practice
Words and Phrases
operate v - a opera; a funciona
vacuum n - vid; gol
uncertainty n - incertitudine; nesiguran
available adj- disponibil
Limba englez

Alina Chec

The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws

ambiguity n - ambiguitate; echivoc

trample v - a nclca; a clca n picioare
overprotective adj- exagerat de protector
carer n - ngrijitor (al unui infirm)
draft v - a proiecta, a schia, a plnui
ground n - motiv; raiune
safeguard v - a proteja (interese, drepturi)
promote v - a promova
welfare n - bunstare, prosperitate
framewock n - cadru
to care for - a avea grij de, a-i psa de
in the field of - n domeniul
decision-making process - proces decizional, proces de luare a deciziilor
mentally incapacitated people - cei fr capacitate de discernmnt datorit unei
boli mintale
on the one hand... on the other hand - pe de o parte ... pe de alt parte
it is likely to be - este posibil s fie
judicial body - corp/organ juridic
to enact a draft bill - a promulga un proiect de lege

Word Formation
Prefixes
The most common prefixes in English are in-, dis-, non-, pre-, over-, super-, un-,
under-, etc.

Here are some examples of a) negative prefixes, and b) prefixes of degree or

size.
a) Negative prefixes
Prefix
IN-

UN-

Meaning

Added to

Examples

the opposite

adjectives

incapable

of not

participles

incapacitated

adjectives

ungrateful

participles

unassuming

as for IN -

unloaded

Limba englez

Alina Chec

The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws

b) Prefixes of degree or size

Prefix

Meaning

OVER-

too much

UNDER-

too little

Added to

Examples

verbes

overcharge

participles

overdressed

adjectives

overprotective

verbs

underestimate

participles

underpaid

Activity 1
Present Subjunctive and Its Uses
Examples
1.

The Commission proposes that the legislation be drafted.

2.

The Commission proposes that the legislation should be drafted.

3.

It is advisable that he give evidence^

4.

It is advisable that he should go there.

5.

It is necessary that he go there.

6.

Parliament has decided that the draft bill be enacted.

7.

The Commission is also recommending that a new judicial body be

created.
The Present Subjunctive is used in official and elevated style. It has the same
form as the Short Infinitive in all the persons, as in Examples 1, 3 and 5.
The Present Subjunctive is also used in "that-clauses" introduced by verbs
expressing intention, decision, suggestion, e.g. to decide, to propose, to insist,
to suggest, to recommend, to request, as in Example 6.
The Present Subjunctive is more common in American English than in British
English, where it is considered to be an archaism of legal style. In colloquial
style "Should with the Infinitive" would be more usual, as in Examples 2 and 4.
Exercises
I. Answer the following questions.
Whose opinion does the Law Commission share?
What do mental health specialists suggest?
What does the Commission propose?
What would carers be required to do?
What is the Commission also recommending?
What kind of authority would the new judicial body have?
Limba englez

Alina Chec

The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws

How should such a body operate?

I. Translate into English using the Present Subjunctive.

1. Judectorul insist ca s fie audiai i ali martori. 2. Este important ca el s

depun mrturie ct de curnd posibil. 3. Ofierul de la imigrri ordon ca
suspectul s, fie inut n detenie pn la anchetarea cazului su. 4. Este necesar
ca suspectul s consulte un avocat. 5. Avocatul a cerut ca s i se acorde
clientului su eliberarea pe cauiune. 6. Este recomandabil ca persoanele care
nu au capacitatea de discernmnt datorit unei boli mintale fie ncurajate s
participe la luare de decizii.
II. Fill in the blanks with the missing words.

1. As a result of .., lawyers suggest that often the rights

the incapacitated people can be . by overprotective carers. 2.
Carers would be under a stated . to act .. the best
interests of . incapacitated person. 3. They should also
.. the person their . in the decision-making
process. 4. The Law Commission recommends that a new .. body
. created to combine the functions of the court
protection with functions in relation to
of personal care and . 5. At present, mental health
law specialists consider that those who .. for the .
incapacitated people in a vacuum of .. over their
responsibilities.
IV. Translate into English.
1. El este insuficient pltit n noua sa slujb 2. Dan s-a comportat (to behave)
ca un fiu nerecunosctor fa de prinii si. 3. Ea a fost mbrcat prea pompos
pentru petrecere. 4. La intrarea n Marea Britanie, ofierul de la imigrri
recomand ca s nu se depeasc perioada permis de edere n ar. 5.
Camionul a fost descrcat n aceast diminea. 6. Chelnerul ne-a ncrcat
(speculat) la plat (to over- charge). 7. Nu trebuie subestimat depoziia
(statement) vreunui martor n anchetarea cazului. 8. El este incapabil s ia vreo
decizie.

Limba englez

Alina Chec

The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws

Example
1. He is unsufficiently paid for his new job.
2. Dan behaved like an ungrateful son towards his parents.

Activity 2
Read the following texts:

1. The Renaissance State

The process of the break-up of medieval institutions which we have been
tracing was given a tremendous impetus by the great revival of antique, culture
of the fifteenth century, which, with all its consequences, is generally called the
Renaissance; for such political facts arid ideas as the scholars of that epoch
found in the work of the Greek writers fitted ill with the medieval conceptions
which were already becoming discredited by the facts. The general effect was
at once one of atomization and one of integration: it atomized the medieval
world but integrated individual states. In England, France and Spain it effected
a more closely integrated state on national lines; in Germany and Italy the
process of integration went on, but over much more confined areas, so that in
those countries many little states arose. But in many respects the Renaissance
undid the good work that had been going on in the three Western states.
The Renaissance state was not a truly constitutional, much less a democratic,
state. Its essential quality, as we have noted earlier, jwas external sovereignty,
which implied a strong central authority maintaining itself at any cost, chiefly
with a view to strengthening the state against all its neighbors. The statesmen
of the Renaissance, indeed, caught but little of the spirit of antique political
philosophy, for, whereas Greek autonomy, as we have seen, was conceived as
the only means of assuring the good life to the individual, Renaissance sovereignty was not at all concerned with the rights of the individual. In short, the
Renaissance monarchs were concerned with politics and not in the least with
ethics, that couple so closely wedded in the philosophy of the Ancient World.
The truth of this is evident in the work of the only political theorist of any
account which that age produced, namely, Machiavelli, himself a very child of
the Renaissance. It was because Machiavelli's country, Italy was not
transformed at this time into a Renaissance sovereign state that he was
concerned to appeal to somebody to do for her what had been done for the
more westerly states. This is the burden of his book, The Prince, published in
1513, in which Machiavelli seeks a saviour of his country in this sense. The
significance of this book is that it marks the epoch very clearly by recording
and turning into a new philosophy the doctrine of "immorality" as applied to
the state - the doctrine, that is to say, which asserts that politics should not be
circumscribed by any ethical considerations, for concern with such matters
could only weaken the sovereignty of the state in a world where sovereignty
counted for everything. The saviour of Italy was not found by Machiavelli, but
it is worthy of notice that when that saviour, Cavour, at last emerged in the
middle of the nineteenth century, he said of his own conduct in the crisis of the
Italian unifying movement, "If we did for ourselves what we are doing for our
country we should be great rascals".
Limba englez

Alina Chec

The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws

The political effect of the religious Reformation of the sixteenth century was to
give to the Renaissance state a divine sanction. The theological attitude of Luther, as first manifested in 1517, logically implied complete toleration of
religious opinions. This was not feasible in a Catholic world in arms, against
which Luther, in order to protect his position, sought the championship of a
political prince. It was thus that the Elector of Saxony established a State
Church. Such a Church was bound to become as exclusive and intolerant as the
one it had superseded. Thus the political consequence of Luther's doctrinal
onslaught upon the Papacy was to atomize the world still further, and to add to
the prerogatives of the renaissance sovereign the control of the religious
practices of his subjects. The movement is most clearly seen in England, where
the ecclesiastical supremacy of Henry VIII and Elisabeth I was succeeded by
the Erastianism of James I.
So Renaissance sovereignty flourished and effectively delayed the harvest of
that constitutional seed which had been sown with such promise in Western
Europe towards the end of Middle Ages. It developed on the continent into the
type of monarchy known as Enlightened Despotism, which may be said to have
lasted from 1660 to 1789. In France, in Prussia, in Austria the despotism
became complete. In France the States- General, from the time of Renaissance,
met less and less frequently, and after 1614 they were not convened at all until
the eve of Revolution in 1789. The two great characteristics of this type of
despotism were a professional army and a professional bureaucracy drawn
generally from the middle class or bourgeoisie. Thus, as feudalism decayed, the
only unifying force was the Crown, which sought no aid from any
representative body, and so the organs of a properly constituted body politic,
instead of thriving by activity, atrophied trough lack of use. That is the reason
why, on the Continent, the full development of constitutionalism was delayed
until the nineteenth century, and why, when it came at least, it took a series of
revolutions to achieve it. In England alone Renaissance monarchy was not
allowed to become an unchecked despotism. It is therefore to English history
that we must turn to trace the uninterrupted development of constitutionalism.
2. Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization)
The international criminal is by no means a new type of wrongdoer; he came
into being with the invention of frontiers. What is relatively new is the speed
and facility with which the international criminal may now travel from one
country to another. Moreover, political changes in Europe and elsewhere have
resulted in extensive migrations and mixing of peoples, which favour international crime.
What is an "international criminal"? The definition of this type of wrongdoer is
not based on any legal concept, since there is in law no such thing as
international crime. The term is simply one of practical convenience. For
example, a man who kills a woman in Paris and then takes refuge in, say,
Belgium, thereby becomes an "international criminal".
Interpol became necessary mainly because of the need both for a united front
for the combating of international crime and for exchange of ideas and methods
between the police forces of the world.
In 1914, for the first time, a number of police officials, magistrates and jurists
met to establish the basis of international police co-operation. However, several
Limba englez

Alina Chec

The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws

months later, the First World War broke out.

During the second criminal police congress, in Vienna
Vienna in 1923, the President of
Police of that city on
once
ce again voiced the idea of establishing international
police co-operation.
operation. A scheme was approved by 130 delegates and an
International Criminal Police Commission with headquarters in Vienna came
into being. It worked satis
satisfactorily until the beginning of the Second World
War.
In 1946, the old members of the ICPC which had been disrupted by the war,
met in Brussels to revive the idea of international police co-operation.
co operation.
Meeting again in Vienna, in 1956, by which time there were fifty-five
fifty
member
countries,, the organization decided to adopt a new constitution. It comprised
fifty articles. Under it the International Criminal Police Commission
Com
was
renamed the "International Criminal Police Organization - Interpol".
The general aims of Interpol are defined in article two of the Constitution as
being: to ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance within the
limits of the laws existing in the different countries and in the spirit of the
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights", to establish and deve
develop all
institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of
ordinary law crimes.
The combating of international crime is divided into three distinct but
complementary activities: the exchange
exchange of police information; the
identification
ification of wanted or suspected individuals; the arrest of those who are
wanted on a warrant issued by the judicial authorities.

Summary
The third chapter, The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws,, has approached the very
complex problem of the mentally incapacitated
pacitated people, who need very clear and
complex laws to protect their interests. The Commission in charge recommends that a
new judicial body should be created to combine the current functions of the court of
protection
tection with similar functions
functions in relation to matters of personal care and welfare. You
also read and translated texts, thus learning more new words from the field of Law and
International Relations and using them in sentences and texts of your own. In addition,
you have been required
required to study grammar issues, such as: Word formation and one of
the types of the Subjunctive Mood.

Self-assessment
assessment tests:
1. Answer the following questions:

1.

What is the Renaissance?

2.

What are the essential qualities of the Renaissance

Renaissance State?

3. What do you know about Machiavelli?

4. What did he write and when was the book published?
pub
5. Which are the characteristics of the type of monarchy
monarchy known as Enlightened
Despotism?

Alina Chec

The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws

2. Translate into English:

1. Renaterea a avut dou consecine n viaa de stat: a anihilat lumea

medieval i a ntregit individualitatea statelor.

2. Cavour, salvatorul Italiei", a fost un om de stat ce a trit n secolul XIX.

3. Cnd feudalismul s-a prbuit, regalitatea a devenit un factor de unificare
politic.

4. In Frana, Statele Generale nu s-au mai ntrunit din anul 1614 i pn n

ajunul Revoluiei din 1789.

3. Answer the following questions:

1. When did the international criminal come into being?
2. What favours international crimes?
3. What is Interpol?
4. When was Interpol established?
5. What are the aims of Interpol?
4. Translate into English:
1. Ideea unei colaborri poliieneti internionale a fost expus pentru prima
dat n anul 1914 cu ocazia unei conferine penale internaionale.
2. In anul 1923 a avut loc la Viena un al doilea congres al poliiei criminale, cu
care ocazie a luat fiin comisia poliiei criminale internaionale cu sediul n
acelai ora.

Limba englez

Alina Chec

The Need for Clearer Mental Health Laws

Bibliography
Brookes, Michael, Horner, E. (2002) Business English. Engleza pentru afaceri.
Bucureti:
ti: Teora.
Brookes, Michael. (2003). Engleza pentru juriti. Bucureti:
ti: Teora.
Chirlescu,
lescu, M., Paidos C. (2005). Proficiency in English. Institutul European.
Cook, J., Gethin, A. (1995). A New Way to Proficiency in English
English. Oxford.
Dayan, A., Lindsay, W.H. (2000). Engleza pentru marketing si publicitate.
Bucureti:
ti: Teora.
Delgiudice, Luminita (1999). Fifty Useful Tests in English. Bucureti:
Bucure Aramis.
Demazet, Bertrand (1999). Engleza comertului exterior. Bucureti:
Bucure Teora.
Gleanu-Frnoag
Frnoag, G. (2000). Limba englez n conversatie. Bucureti:
tiinific i Enciclopedic.
Enciclopedic
Gheorghitoiu, Andreea. (1998). Dictionar englez-roman
roman de verbe cu particula
adverbiala.. Bucureti:
Bucure Teora.
Hanga, Vladimir (2000). Dictionar juridic englez-roman. Bucure
Bucureti: Lumina
Lex.
Health, R.B. (2002). Impact Assignments in English. London: Longman.
Hulban H. (1997). English for You. Iai: Rzeu.
Le Divenach, Eloi (2005). Engleza in presa. Bucureti: Teora.
Lupuleasa, R. (2004). Ready for Exams. Bucureti: Polirom.
Marie-Claude,
Claude, Roland (2000). CV in limba engleza.Un
za.Un pas spre angajare.
angajare
Bucureti:
ti: Teora.
Martin, M. Combe (2000). Listening and Comprehending. Macmillan.
Mihaescu, Alexandra (2007). Gramatica limbii engleze.. Bucure
Bucureti: Niculescu.
Molnar Oprea, Nicoleta (2000). Curs de limba engleza pentru studentii
facultatilor cu profil juridic.
juridic Bucureti: All Educational.
Oprescu, Simona (1999). Engleza pentru juriti. Bucureti: Oscar Print.
Peters, Jo-Ann
Ann (2004). Lets Learn English. Metod Larousse de nv
nvare a
limbii engleze.. Bucureti:
Bucure Teora.
Rusu, Liliana (2001).
(2
Limba engleza pentru studentii facultatii de drept.
drept
Bucureti:
ti: Sylvi.