The Court System of the UK

The United Kingdom has no Ministry of Justice. The courts and lawyers have a strong tradition of independence from the government. Responsibility for the administration of the judicial system in England and Wales is divided between the courts themselves, the Lord Chancellor, and the Home Secretary. The Lord Chancellor, who is the head of the legal profession and is always a member of the Cabinet, is concerned with the composition of the courts, with civil law, parts of criminal procedure and law reform in general; the Home Secretary is concerned with the prevention of criminal offenses, the apprehension, trial and treatment of offenders, and with the prison service. England and Wales have a single system of law and courts, and Scotland has a system of its own.

The most common type of law court in England and Wales is the magistrates’ court, which is presided over by the magistrates, who are normally Justices of the Peace (JPs). More serious cases then go to the Crown Court presided over by judges or senior barristers specially appointed to perform judicial functions for part of their time. Civil cases (for example, divorce or bankruptcy cases) are dealt with in County Courts. Appeals are heard by higher courts. For example appeals from magistrates’ courts are heard in the Crown Court. Certain cases are referred to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg [´lΛks(ə)mbə:g] or the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg [´stræzbə:g]. The legal system also includes juvenile courts (which deal with offenders under seventeen) and coroners’ courts (which investigate violent, sudden or unnatural death). There are administrative tribunals [trai´bju:nl], which deal with professional standard, disputes between individuals, and disputes between individuals and government departments (for example, over taxation).

The first thing to notice is that there is no civil code and no criminal code. The law consists partly of statutes, or Acts of Parliament, and partly of common law made up of the decisions of judges, with regard to matters not regulated by statutes, in accordance with custom and reason. A large part of the civil law is not contained in statutes at all but made up of a mass of precedents, privious court decisions. By now, however, almost all actions for which a person may be punished are actions which are specifically forbidden by some statute.

2. Find in the text English equivalents for the following words and expressions:

міністр; міністр закордонний справ; міністр юстиції; Лорд-Канцлер; Міністр внутрішніх справ; заслуговує на окрему згадку; ініціювати правову реформу; керування правовою системою; поводження із злочинцями; запобігання кримінальних злочинів; займатися складом судів; затримання; суд / судовий процес; втручатися; виконувати судові функції; справа про банкрутство; суд графства; суд у справах неповнолітніх; відправити справу до Європейського суду; мати справу з правопорушниками молодше сімнадцяти років; розслідувати насильницьку, раптову чи неприродню смерть.

3. A: Fill in the appropriate word from the list below.

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