法学专业英语教程之期法律英语末复习

Unit One :Introduction to the American Legal System

1.What is law?Though we used the word “law”very often in our daily conversations,we use it in so many that there is no simple answer to this question.

译：何为法律？纵使我们在日常对话中经常用到“法律”一词，我们仍然无法对这个问题简要回答。

https://www.360docs.net/doc/699341113.html,w has been defined as a set of rules that govern the actions of people in a com munity.These rules must be followed by citizens,and violation of these rules may give rise to a cause of action in the courts.This view sees law as a set of fixed principles known to lawyers and judges, ignorance if which excuses no one,not even the less knowledge or less affluent members of society.

译：法律曾被定义为规范一个群体中人们的行为的一套规则。公民必须遵守这些规则，违反这类规则将会引起诉讼的案由。这种观点将法律视为一套被律师和法官所知悉的、固定的规则，不了解这条规则的人并不能因此被免除责任，即使他们文化水平低或经济条件差也不能例外。

3.Another view is that law is a method of establishing order by maintaining authority if a ruler over those ruled.According to this view, law begins only when a coercive apparatus comes into existence to maintain control through enforcement of social norms.The control group need not be agents of a political entity, but may be labor,business,or church organizations.And the coercion can be psychological as well as physical.

译：另一种观点认为，法律是统治者通过保持其权威，建立秩序规则，统治被统治者的一种方法。根据这种观点，只有在强制力的机构产生且其通过实施社会规范来维持控制时，法律才开始形成。控制集团不一定要是政治实体的代表，可以是工人、商人或教会组织。这种强制可以是心理的也可以是生理的。

4.Most observes, however, believe that law exist only in a formal setting that involves the legislative, judicial, and executive arms of a political body and its system.This view holds that although rules are an important part of the process, the emphasis is upon actions for the purpose of adherence to those rules. Law is thus defined as the formal means of social control that involves the use of rules that are interpreted, and are enforceable, by the courts of a political community. The hallmark of law is the obligation to act in line with norms authoritatively determined.

译：多数人认为，法律只存在于一种包含政治实体的立法、司法和行政机构

及其制度的正式的环境中。这种观点认为，尽管规则是总过程中一个重要的组成部分，重点却在于为使人们遵守这些规则而采取的行动。因此，法律被定义为一种正式的社会控制手段，这涉及了规则的使用和理解，还包含了可以由法院这个政治团体来强制实行。法律的标志是人人都必须遵守权威机构认定的行为规则。

https://www.360docs.net/doc/699341113.html,ws may be classified in many ways. They are sometimes classified as

substantive law and procedural law. The rules of law that are used to resolve disputes are referred to substantive law. The legal procedures that determine how a lawsuit is begun, how the trial is conducted, how appeals are taken, and how a judgment is enforced are called procedural law.Substantive law defines rights, and procedural law establishes the procedures by which these rights are enforced and protected. For example, A and B have entered into a agreement, and A claims B has breached the agreement. The rules that provide for bringing B into court and for the conduct of the trial are rather mechanical and they constitute procedural law. Whether the agreement was enforceable and whether A is entitled to damages are matters of substance and would be determined on the basis of the substantive law of contracts.

译：法律分类有很多种划分方法。有时它们被划分为为实体法和程序法。用

于实际裁决纠纷的法律被称为实体法。决定诉讼何时开始、审判如何进行、如何上诉、判决如何被执行的法律程序被称为程序法。实体法界定权利，而程序法确认施行和保护这些权利的程序。举个例子，A和B达成了协议，A主张B违反约定。将B推上法庭和支持审判所依据的规则是相当机械的，这些规则就是程序法。至于上述协议是否可执行以及A是否应得到损失赔偿则是实质性的问题，将取决于实体的合同法。

https://www.360docs.net/doc/699341113.html,w is also frequently classified into public law and private law. Public law includes those bodies of law that affect the public generally. It can be further divided into constitutional law, administrative law and criminal law. Private law includes the areas of law that concern the relationships between individuals in an organized society. It covers the subjects of contracts, torts and property, each of which can be subdivided into several bodies of law .The law of torts is the primary source of litigation in America. It deals with wrongful acts against a person or his property and is based on the theory that in a civilized society, people who injure other persons or their property must compensate them for their loss.

译：法律也经常被分为公法和私法。公法通常包括影响公众的法律。公法又可进一步细分为宪法、行政法和刑法。私法包括涉及有组织的社会中个人间相互关系的法律领域。它涵盖了合同、侵权和知识产权等领域，每一部分又可以再细分为许多方面。侵权法是美国诉讼的主要依据。它处理的是侵犯个人权利的不法行为，它的理论依据是:在文明社会里,危害他人或他人财产者必须赔偿损失。

7.Classification of law according to subject matter can often be difficult because the law is indeed a seamless web, and overlapping is inevitable if we divide it according to a clear-cut definition. Assume that a person is injured by a product he has purchased. The law of sales, even though a part of the law of contracts, contains several aspects that could best be labeled a branch of the law of torts. Therefore, it is apparent that even the general classification of contract and tort is not accurate in describing the subject matter of various bodies of law.

译：根据不同的内容将法律进行分类通常很难，因为法律是一个没有缝隙的网络，如果我们根据法律清晰明确的定义划分法律，那么相互交叉是无法避免的。