English for lawyers

What is meant by law?

The system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its
members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties.

Divisions of law

Criminal Law and Civil Law. Substantive Law and Procedural Law. Municipal Law and International Law.

Public law

the law of relationships between individuals and the government.

Private law

a branch of the law that deals with the relations between individuals or institutions, rather than
relations between these and the government.

Legislation

Legislation is a law or a set of laws that have been passed by Parliament. The word is also used to
describe the act of making a new law.

Statute

a written law passed by a legislative body.

kinds of statutes

public acts and private acts

public acts

an act of legislation affecting the public as a whole.

Private acts

a statute exclusively for the settlement of private and personal interests, of which courts do not take
judicial notice.

Lord chancelor

(in the UK) the highest officer of the Crown, responsible for the efficient functioning and independence
of the courts, and formerly presiding over the House of Lords, the Chancery Division, or the Court of
Appeal. The lord chancellor is chosen by the prime minister.

common law

the part of English law that is derived from custom and judicial precedent rather than statutes. Often
contrasted with statutory law.
Branches of legal profession in England

The legal profession in England and Wales is divided into two branches: solicitors and barristers.
Barristers- a lawyer entitled to practice as an advocate, particularly in the higher courts. Soliciters- a
person who tries to obtain business orders, advertising, etc. Solicitors are represented by the Law
Society and barristers by the Bar Council.

Legal aid

free legal advice or representation for a person who cannot afford it.

Civil courts

a court dealing with noncriminal cases such as Issues like debt, housing disputes and bankruptcy. Civil
cases also include cases involving: divorce.

Criminal courts

Criminal courts deal with persons accused of committing a crime, deciding whether they are guilty and,
if so, determining the consequences they shall suffer.

Roman legal procedure

Roman legal procedure, long evolving system used in the Roman courts, which in its later stages formed
the basis for modern procedure in civil-law countries.

the European Court of Human Rights

What does the European Court of Human Rights do? The Court applies the European Convention on
Human Rights. Its task is to ensure that States respect the rights and guarantees set out in the
Convention. It does this by examining complaints (known as “applications”) lodged by individuals or,
sometimes, by States. The judges are are elected by the parliamentary assembly of the council of Europe
for a term of six years. The judges don’t represent any state. The official languages of the court are
English and French.

American federalism

Federalism involves multiple layers of government with shared powers amongst them and powers
unique to each of the levels of the government. The three basic levels of American federalism are the
national or federal government, the states, and the local governments (counties, cities, townships).

What is the main idea of American federalism? The core idea of American federalism is that two levels of
government, national and state, exercise certain powers directly and separately on the people at the
same time. This is known as a system of dual sovereignty.

What are the three parts of American federalism? The federal government is composed of three
branches: legislative, executive and judicial.
The American presidency

The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States of
America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-
in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

Impeachment

to charge with a crime or misconduct specifically : to charge (a public official) before a competent
tribunal (as the U.S. Senate) with misconduct in office. Note: Impeachment is the first step in removing
an officer from office. The grounds of impeachment according to the constitution are: treason, bribery,
or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

The supreme court of the united states

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States
of America. It has ultimate and largely discretionary appellate jurisdiction over all federal and state court
cases that involve a point of federal law, and original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases,
specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a
State shall be Party. Of the 5000 cases a year reaching the court, only about 175 can be argued in front
of the justices in their courtroom.

“The supreme court is not a court of justice- it is a court of law” –Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

In the courtroom the justices hear 4 cases a day- one hour for each- three days in one week, and then a
second set of 12 in the three days of the following week. Thus 24 cases are heard in 10 calendar days.

The Case Method of Law Teaching

use in law schools …technique came to be the case method, in which the student reads reported cases
and other materials collected in a casebook, and the class answers questions about them instead of
listening to a lecture by the teacher.

It was first developed at the Harvard Law School in the last decades of the 18 th century.