Контрольные работы по английскому языку (для студентов 2 курса заочного отделения юридического факультета). Оськина С.Д. - 10 стр.

also had a jury system, but it was often criticized for the ease with               Lower courts
which jurors could be bribed. Now Japan, like South Korea, is a rare                Apart, from the limited civil functions of Magistrates Courts (for
example of a modem industrialized country where jurors are not used:         example, prevention of family violence), the lowest court in a civil ac-
ill decisions are made by professional judges.                               tion is a County Court, of which there is one in every town in England
        Most countries have special rules for young defendants. Children     and Wales. The judges are always professionals. They may hear matters
younger ten cannot stand trial at all under English law. Juveniles (those    such as contract and tort disputes, actions regarding claims to land or
under seventeen) are dealt with in special Magistrates Courts known as       those regarding the property of a dead person. Cases involving larger
Juvenile Courts.                                                             amounts of money are heard by one of the divisions of the High Court.
        A defendant found guilty by the magistrates may appeal against       The Chancery Division, for example, deals with disputes about trusts,
the finding or against the punishment to the local Crown Court, and the      the property of the dead and bankruptcy, among other things. Appeals
own Court judge will hear the appeal without a jury. If a defendant las      from the High Court, and most appeals from the County Courts, go to
good reason to believe the magistrates have made a mistake about a           the Court, of Appeal.
point of law, then he may appeal to the Queen's Bench Division of the               Some County Courts have authority to grant divorces, but when
High Court. The appeal system is mostly for the benefit of the defen-        one of the parties disputes the divorce, it must be transferred to the
dant, but, there are cases of the prosecution successfully appealing for a   Family Division of the High Court.
more severe punishment. In Japan it is even possible for the prosecution            In addition to the courts mentioned above, there are numerous
to appeal that a not-guilty decision be changed to guilty.                   special courts which have been established to make decisions in particu-
        Appeals from the Crown Court go first to the High Court, and, in     lar types of dispute. For example, special industrial tribunals deal with
special cases, to the Court of Appeal. Occasionally, a case is carried       disputes over contracts and sexual discrimination in employment mat-
through this system of appeal all the way to the House of Lords.             ters.
        The House of Lords is considered the upper house of the British-            Restrictions
parliament, but its political powers are much more limited than that of             In Britain, as in other nations with democratic systems of gov-
the lower house, the House of Commons. Members of the House of               ernment, most court, cases are open to the public. This means that any
Lords are not elected but consist of hereditary peers, peers appointed for   member of the public may witness a court case, although he does not
life by the government, bishops of the Church of England, and the law        have the right to speak and may be ordered from the court if he tries to
lords – peers appointed for life after long service as lawyers. When sit-    interrupt proceedings. But there are some proceedings which are closed.
ting as a court of appeal it is only the law lords and certain other gov-    For example, a judge may order that no member of the public be present
ernment-appointed officials who hear cases. Their decisions on both          in a case where a child is giving evidence of sexual abuse which he or
criminal and civil matters bind all other courts. Only the government        she has suffered. The public is also sometimes excluded if the judge
can overturn a decision of the House of Lords and then, only by passing      feels that a witness or a member of a jury is being threatened by some-
an Act of Parliament.                                                        one watching the proceedings.
        In many countries, such as Japan and the United States, the high-           There are also restrictions on who may conduct a case in court. In
est judicial decisions are made by a Supreme Court. Its members are          most countries, an ordinary member of the public has the right to pre-
appointed from the lower courts by the government. Unlike the British        sent his own case himself. However, although this sometimes happens
House of Lords, Supreme Courts are entirely concerned with legal mat-        in lower courts, most people choose to be represented by a professional
ters including the legality of government acts) and have no role in legis-   lawyer, especially in a higher court.
lation.

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