Assignment 1. Assignment 2

Assignment 1

Scan and translate the text.

Assignment 2

Write out and analyze legal terms. Remember to add them to the glossary in the future.

The Role of Law in Modern World

Ever since the dawn of human civilization, mankind has had some sort of rules which was used to govern itself. “Ubi societus, ibi jus”. This legal proverb means “Where there is a society, there must be law”. What is the law? Law is the body of rules established by the State. The importance of law in modern societies is hard to overestimate. It is the cement and base of any modern State. Law plays a significant role in producing different successful functions around the world. The aim of law is keeping the peace all over the world and it is a code of conduct for the people in a given society. It actually is a framework for much of what people do. Martin Partington in his famous book “Introduction to the English Legal System 2013-2014” stresses that there are macro and micro functions of law. “The macro functions of law cover law and public order, political order, social order, economic order, international order, and moral order. They also include the resolution of social problems; the regulation of human relationships; and the educative or ideological function of law. The micro functions of law include defining the limits of acceptable behavior, the consequences of certain forms of behavior, processes for the transaction of business and other activities; and creating regulatory frameworks; giving authority to agents of the state to take actions against citizens; preventing the abuse of power by officials; giving power/authority to officials to assist the public; and prescribing procedures for the use of law.”[1]

In other words, there will be a chaos and anarchy in any modern society without the law. It is the law protects the rights of the citizens no matter their race, gender, religion and social standing. But it should be considered that there is a widespread view of the law, which conceives of it only function as that forbidding or negating action, without understanding that it must play a constructive role in the society, and must be employed to foster and safeguard democratic institutions, equality of opportunity which is the essence of the democratic way of modern democratic States. The stability of any society, its political, economic and cultural prosperity is directly linked to the role that plays law in a given State. An equally important role law plays in the protection of economic development of any State and private business. The most part of modern politicians, economists and entrepreneurs are absolutely sure that law plays a key role in the business development process.

The various kinds of rules that guide the conduct of people (sources of law) may be found in Constitutions, laws passed by legislative bodies, State and local executive agencies, ordinances and regulations adopted by city authorities. In the USA (common law system) the Constitution is the ultimate source of the law. However, it was never designed to address every specific legal question. Within the boundaries of the Constitution (for example, in the United States), there are two primary sources of law, common law and statutory law. In common law system rules come from the judicial branch. Though the courts do not pass laws, they only interpret them. This means that the judiciary bases their legal decisions on what is written in the Constitution, and on previous court rulings in similar cases. This is a doctrine called “stare decisis”, which in Latin means “let the decision stand”.

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