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CONTENTS UNIT
1. AN INTRODUCTION TO LAWS UNIT
3. CHALLENGES OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM UNIT
7.CIVIL PROCEDURE AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
CIVIL PROCEDURE AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE UNIT
12. A LAW FIRM STRUCTURE AND PRACTISE UNIT
14. IMPRISONMENT: RETRIBUTION OR REHIBILITATION |
UNIT 9. HISTORY OF LAW Part 1 LAW IN
EARLY ROME AND THE REPUBLIC Long before the Roman Republic was established in 509 BCE, the early
Romans lived by laws developed through centuries of custom. This customary
law (ius, in Latin) was handed down through
generations and was considered by the Romans to be an inherited aspect of
their society as it had evolved from its earliest days. Integral to the
notion that this customary law was part of the fabric of early Roman culture
was the fact that this law only applied to Roman citizens and was thus ius civile, or civil law. The citizens of Rome were divided into two classes: patricians, the
elite class who ruled Roman society, and plebeians, the common people. One
element of the patricians' elite status was that a group of patrician men
called pontiffs were the ones who made decisions and ruled in questions of
customary law. Over time, plebeians came to see that because of the disparity
between their positions, patricians tended to have some advantage in the
legal decisions made by the pontiffs who were their equals in status and
power, and dissatisfaction grew with what many perceived to be the
arbitrariness of the decisions made. This dissatisfaction arose during a
period in the early Republic of intense conflict within the social order, as
plebeians agitated to gain more political and social equality and patricians
attempted to keep a tight hold on their own power. The plebeians pressed for
the law to be written down, so that they might better anticipate the
decisions made by the patrician pontiffs and understand their basis in the
established law. Thus a committee of ten men called the decemvirs
was established in 451 BCE to write down the law for the first time. The work
they produced in 449 BCE, the Twelve Tables, documented the centuries-old
customary laws and became the foundation of Roman law as we know it. The
Twelve Tables touched on many areas of law, not only the civil law that
applied directly to citizens, but also areas such as public law and religious
law, which applied to larger social constructs and institutions. The Twelve Tables did not rewrite existing law or create new law.
Rather, they simply transferred established customary law (ius) to a written form (lex).
Neither did the Twelve Tables commit all existing law to written form.
Instead, they focused on specific facets that had led or could lead to
dispute or disagreement, and they addressed the technical aspects of legal
procedure, so that a citizen had a guide to the proper ways to pursue legal
action. While the Twelve Tables were destroyed during the Celtic invasions of
the fourth century BCE, their legacy was very strong and much of their
content remained known-Cicero (106– 43 BCE) the great statesman, jurist and
orator of the late Republic, wrote that he was made to memorize and recite
their provisions as a student. As the Roman republic grew and then transformed into an empire, its
rulers faced the increasing challenge of governing an evermore
diverse and far-flung population. Legal questions and disputes inevitably
arose not only among Roman citizens, but with non-citizens living in or
traveling through its territories, to whom the ius civile did not apply. This
led to the development of the ius gentium («law of nations») and ius
naturale («natural law»). The ius
gentium, or law of nations/peoples, was the body of
laws that applied to all people, foreigners and non-citizens as well as
citizens, and was based upon the common principles and reasoning that
civilized societies and humankind were understood to live by and share. These
laws common to all people were further understood to be rooted in the ius naturale, or natural law, a
category of law based on the principles shared by all living creatures,
humans as well as animals (such as laws pertaining to procreation, or
physical defense against attack). As these areas of law became more complex in tandem with the society
that they governed, Roman rulers found themselves in need of a larger group
of legal authorities to give order to the system of legal formulas and
decisions. By the second half of the third century BCE, a new professional
group of specialists trained in law, the jurists,
emerged to meet this demand. The jurists did not participate in administering
the law, but rather focused on interpreting and generating formal opinions on
the law, as the pontiffs had done in earlier days. It was the work and
scholarly writings of generations of great jurists that elevated Roman law to
its apex during the first two and a half centuries CE, which is referred to
as the classical period of Roman law. By the reign of the emperor
Justinian I (ruled 527-565 CE), the vast territories of the Roman Empire in
Europe, North Africa, and the East had for centuries been politically and
culturally divided into the Western Empire and the Eastern, or Byzantine,
Empire. The Western Empire had endured a series of Germanic invasions that
led to its final collapse by 476 CE. So the Roman Empire under Justinian's
rule was the East – though during his reign, the emperor waged a successful
campaign to reconquer some of the Western
territories that had been lost to Germanic invaders, such as Italy and parts
of Spain. Like other Roman emperors before him, Justinian faced the challenge
of maintaining control and creating a sense of unity among far-flung
territories where other cultures and languages besides Latin (such as Greek)
predominated. One of the ways that Justinian sought to unify the empire was through
law. Roman citizenship had been extended to the empire outside of Italy in
the third century ce, making inhabitants far and
wide «citizens of Rome» and subject to its civil law. He formed a commission
of jurists to compile all existing Roman law into one body, which would serve
to convey the historical tradition, culture, and language of Roman law
throughout the empire. This compilation is sometimes referred to as «Justinian's
Code», but in
fact the Code was only one element. The compilation of Justinian actually
consisted of three different original parts: the Digest (Digesta),
the Code (Codex), and the Institutes (Institutiones).
The Digest (533 CE) collected and summarized all of the classical jurists'
writings on law and justice. The Code (534 CE) outlined the actual laws of
the empire, citing imperial constitutions, legislation and pronouncements.
The Institutes (535 CE) were a smaller work that summarized the Digest,
intended as a textbook for students of law. A fourth work, the Novella (Novellae), was not a part of Justinian's project, but was
created separately by legal scholars in 556 CE to update the Code with new
laws created after 534 CE and summarize Justinian's own constitution. The compilation of Justinian is widely considered to be the emperor's
greatest contribution to the history of Western society. Though largely
forgotten for several centuries after the fall of the Western Empire, Roman
law experienced a revival that began at the University of Bologna, Italy, in
the eleventh century and spread throughout Europe. Surviving manuscript
copies of Justinian's compilation were rediscovered and systematically
studied and reproduced. These new editions of the compilation, which were
given the name Corpus iuris civilis
(«body of civil law»), became the foundational source for Roman law in the
Western tradition. All later systems of law in the West borrowed heavily from
it, including the civil law systems of Western continental Europe, Latin
America, and parts of Africa and to a lesser but still notable extent the
English common law system, from which American law is principally derived. EXERCISES 1. Sum up the main ides of the text and retell
it in Russian. 2. Fill in the missing words from the box into the
text below.
The Romans had the first truly advanced legal system, and Roman law
principles and 1)_________
are littered throughout English law. The Roman concept of usucapio
is almost identical to the English land law doctrine of adverse possession,
and similar to 2)_________ in public international 3)_________, while the Roman 4)_________ of consensus ad idem reflects
conceptually what Thesiger LJ in Household Fire and
Carriage Accident Insurance Co Ltd v Grant described as «practically the
foundation of English law upon the 5)_________ of the formation of contracts». Globalisation is paving
the way for the increasingly international legal transactions and disputes.
As a result, 6)_________ are required to work across
numerous jurisdictions. Knowledge not only of languages but also of some of
the relevant legal concepts of these 7)_________ is
beneficial. Because the French, German, Italian and a vast number of other
legal systems kept alive many of the Roman legal rules and 8)_________,
studying Roman law gives students a 9)_________ grounding in the fundamental
principles of these jurisdictions. John Hull, a former partner at Latham & Watkins, sums it up best: «Roman
law is the historical framework to so many 10)_________
aspects of civil law 11)_________ and jurisprudence. As a lawyer who practised in international, multi-jurisdictional
litigation, I have seen first-hand how Roman law concepts are woven like a
thread into fundamental aspects of cases I have been involved in, both as a
matter of the private and public international law». The concept of lis alibi pendens,
which is integral to many multi-jurisdictional disputes today to the 12)_________ that is enshrined within EU law, demonstrates
this. It holds that a court cannot accept jurisdiction over a case that
another court is in the process of determining. For many law students too, some of the contents of a Roman law module – as well as being 13)_________
for future studying and work – can
represent a welcome break from the complexities of English law. After
struggling through a book about mortgages or a never-ending article on legal 14)_________,
reading the primary sources of Roman law – much like some English case law – often make for light-hearted relief. Hidden away among key 15)_________ ideas, Gaius’ Institutes and
Justinian’s Digest discuss critically important fact-patterns, such as: in
what circumstances bees and pigeons constitute animals that can be owned, and
what 16)_________ to a person who digs a pit on the highway for the purpose of
catching bears, but accidentally finds another person has fallen in. So don’t dismiss Roman law as an 17)_________
module that’s not worth studying: the knowledge it offers can be valuable to
your future studies and career. And, compared to other law 18)_________ available, it’s a lot less Gaul-ling. 3. Read the following article and make a rendering
of it in English. Для современного англичанина или американца Великая хартия вольностей (Magna carta) – это один из
основополагающих документов, в котором, возможно, впервые нашли отражение
такие идеи, как господство права, суд равных, равенство всех перед судом,
защита прав человека. Главное содержание этого документа отражено в названии, которое ему
дали впоследствии: «хартия» – некий носитель, документ, «великая» – то
есть важная, «вольностей» – то есть освещающая права и свободы лиц – изначально наиболее важных баронов, вассалов
короля, затем и всех свободных лиц, а потом уже и всех подданных Великобритании.
Этот документ в данный момент лишь номинально сохраняет значение,
частично записан в британской конституции, хотя формально действуют только
три статьи, защищающие права английской церкви, предоставляющие права и
вольности городу Лондону и окрестностям, и самая известная, 39-я статья, о
судебном преследовании по законному приговору равных обвиняемому. Статьи, о которых мы говорим, в самом документе не выделены.
Изначальный документ – это сплошной текст, написанный на куске
пергамента, выделанной писчей коже, разных размеров. Задача состояла в том,
чтобы утвердить документ, составить как можно больше копий, разослать по
кафедральным соборам в Английском королевстве. Каждая из копий – это
сплошной текст на том заполненном от левого верхнего угла до правого нижнего
куске пергамента, который был. Только в середине XVIII века английский юрист
Уильям Блэкстон в первом серьезном исследовании
хартии и истории ее составления предложил деление на статьи, которое и используется по сей день. Еще один любопытный момент, который обычно не упоминают: разные подходы
к Magna carta – существует
взгляд историков и взгляд юристов. Есть Magna carta как исторический документ со всей предысторией ее
принятия, артефактами и последующей редакцией. Историки начинают ее изучать
около XVIII века, а серьезные исследования появляются только в XIX веке. До
этого времени Magna carta
исследуют исключительно юристы, для которых она постепенно приобретает
значение одного из конституционных документов Британии. Для историков важно оригинальное значение, для юристов – правовое значение отдельных положений
документа, какие они приобретают со временем. До сих пор английский юрист
может сослаться на Великую хартию, чтобы обосновать принцип господства права
равенства перед судом. Part 2 MEDIEVAL
ENGLISH LAW IN THE TIME OF MAGNA CARTA It was a period of rebellion, international conflict and massive
social change. But what sort of legal system governed the land in medieval
England and how was criminal law executed? Here, Dr Jens Röhrkasten,
a lecturer in medieval history at the University of Birmingham, investigates… English law in the time of Magna Carta was
based on two traditions, one going back to the time before the Norman
Conquest of 1066, the other created in the 12th century. The older tradition
had roots in old customs and in texts, one of which is thought to have been
written between 601 and 604 AD. A wide range of issues was covered by these early laws, including
punishment for criminal activity and compensation payments for injuries. One
of the kings who contributed to this legal system was Alfred, king of the
West Saxons (c849– 899), who laid the foundations for a united kingdom of
England. The counties into which England was divided, probably since the
ninth century, were administrative units under royal officials – «shire reeves» – who were also entrusted with the task of
jurisdiction. They convened the county courts, and it was here and in the
subdivisions of the counties (of which there were hundreds) that most trials
took place. The law dispensed here was «customary» law. It had been developed
further through written royal laws, which are often attributed to individual
rulers of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Most people had to take their litigation
to the county court and only members of the social elite had direct access to
the king. The second tradition, created by the legal changes in the 12th
century, generated a new legal system based on royal justice. It was enforced
by royal judges who were sent into the counties, where they used the
traditional county courts as a forum for a gradually developing new royal
law. Among the legal innovations was the jury, which was introduced in
civil cases – mostly those about the possession of land as well as in the
criminal law. Juries were supposed to be composed of well-informed people who
would provide information with the promise – made before God – to speak the
truth. This obligation gave them their name: jury, from Latin «jurare», meaning to give an oath. In the evolving land law, juries were used to determine questions of
fact, answerable simply by «yes» or «no», in proceedings about inheritance or
in disputes about «seisin», a form of direct
control of land and buildings. Was the claimant’s ancestor really the last
person to be seised and is the claimant really that
tenant’s heir? Had a person who had been seised of
a specific piece of land been forcibly evicted without judgement? These – and similar – procedures were popular, and part of the
beginnings of a common law that was based on royal authority and which
applied to all parts of the kingdom in the same way. The mechanisms of this
law were first described by Ranulf de Glanvill, one of the administrators of Henry II (king of
England from 1154– 89), who also served as a military leader and diplomat,
his career culminating when he obtained the highest office in royal service,
that of justiciar. Glanvill’s treatise,
On the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom of England, reveals a pragmatic and in
many ways modern legal system. During Henry II’s reign royal justice was made
available to all free subjects, and since the king and his court tended to be
mobile (not merely in England but also in other territories, notably
Normandy), a royal law court independent of the royal household was set up in
England. However, elements of the older legal tradition continued to be part of
the law, for example in the criminal law. Up to 1215 proof of guilt or
innocence was still by ordeal, a procedure that invoked divine intervention
to determine whether the accused was responsible for the crime or not.
Invariably this was a public ceremony involving a short period of fasting, a
religious service and the subjection of the defendant to the actual test. In
the 12th century this was very likely the ordeal of cold water: the accused
would be submerged in water to see whether he would float (a sign of guilt)
or sink (a sign of innocence). Two other ordeals involved the ritual infliction of injury: that of
the hot iron and that of boiling water. The first saw the defendant carry a
hot iron over a distance, while the second ordeal forced the defendant to
retrieve items from a cauldron filled with boiling water. In these forms the
healing process determined the guilt or innocence of the accused. These
ordeals required the participation of a priest, a precondition that could no
longer be met when the Church decided to prohibit the involvement of priests
in these ceremonies in a council held at the Lateran in Rome in 1215. The
council’s decision made it impossible to continue with the traditional
ordeals and an alternative had to be found. In England this led to the
creation of the trial jury for criminal cases. These changes to the criminal law were not reflected in the 1215 Magna
Carta, although the document contained frequent
references to the law. Tenants-in-chief, those major landowners who held
their property directly from the crown and their heirs, were protected from
arbitrary royal demands when an inheritance was due. Another form of protection for this elite group was King John’s
promise not to grant the marriage of the heirs – and especially heiresses – of
crown vassals to people below their social rank. As feudal lord the king had
the right to do just that and John is known to have kept lists of heirs and
heiresses whose marriage could he sold to the
highest bidder. Another clause of Magna Carta concerned the
location of the royal court for pleas between private parties (common pleas)
established during the reign of Henry II. It was important that litigants
were able to find the venue and this was to be in a place known to all,
according to baronial demands. However, the charter did not only deal with
the social elite, although a baronial faction had been instrumental in
forcing the king to agree to the demands. The opposition consisted of a
broader spectrum of society and the interests of other groups were also
considered in the document. EXERCISES 1. Sum up the main ides of the text and retell
it in Russian. 2. Fill in the missing words from the box into the
text below.
The privileges of London were 1)_________ and
the commercial interests of wider communities were taken into consideration.
There were to be no changes to the communities’ 2)_________ to repair bridges
– no arbitrary increase of traditional
requirements to bear the costs – and
royal bailiffs were not to put anyone on trial unless there were credible
witnesses to the charge. Merchants were to be secure in their business and they were to be 3)_________ free access to and from the country. The
charter went even further in extending the range of social groups involved.
It 4)_________ changes to the forest law. The royal
forest consisted not necessarily of woodland but of areas in which the king’s
hunt was 5)_________ by imposing restrictions on
landowners. This subject was so sensitive that in 1217, when a third version
of Magna Carta was granted, the original document
was accompanied by a 6)_________ charter only
dealing with forest issues. Modern 7)_________ emphasise
that Magna Carta was an attempt to find a
resolution for an acute political crisis rather than an effort to introduce
long-term constitutional 8)_________.
Nevertheless the charters (Magna Carta versions of
1215, 1216, 1217 and 1225 as well as the Charter of the Forest of 1217) were
an important element in the 9)_________ of a
distinctive English common law. The inclusion of specific and rather
technical issues shows that the 10)_________ of this
law was part of a political process, a form of negotiation between a crown
(with its power based on a modern and centralised
administration) and different 11)_________ groups who wanted a protection of
their interests. 3. Read the following article and make a rendering
of it in English. 2015 году в Великобритании, а также других
англоязычных странах отмечают 800 лет с момента принятия Великой хартии
вольностей (лат. Magna carta). Трудно назвать другой
средневековый правовой акт в Старом Свете, о котором
сегодня помнят не только историки права, но и широкая общественность. Причем
не только помнят, но и считают отправной точкой развития современных
концепций прав и свобод свободного человека, беспристрастного и скорого
правосудия, господства права в отношении частных и должностных лиц, запрета
произвольного налогообложения. За свою долгую историю хартия могла быть не
раз утрачена или забыта, но вплоть до сего дня каждое поколение открывало ее
значение заново. Тем интереснее разобраться в перипетиях самого́
исторического документа и окружающего его мифа. На 17-й год правления (1215 год по современному летоисчислению)
английский король Иоанн, прозванный Безземельным, «даровал» своим поданным
хартию, подтверждающую их древние права и вольности. Резонанс вызвала не
столько сама хартия, сколько обстоятельства ее принятия. Иоанну приходилось
облагать своих подданных новыми поборами, чтобы финансировать свои неудачные
войны с королем Франции Филиппом II и вернуть потерянные владения в
Нормандии. Репутацию английского монарха в глазах подданных ухудшило еще и
то, что в 1213 году он объявил себя вассалом папы римского Иннокентия III,
чтобы получить его поддержку и избежать вторжения французского короля в
Англию. Нуждаясь в деньгах, Иоанн и его чиновники шли на всевозможные нарушения
установленных обычаев: это и увеличение феодальных сборов, и объявление новых
земельных участков королевскими лесами, и безосновательное лишение феодов
своих вассалов, и насильственная выдача замуж вдов, и произвольное задержание
несогласных с этой политикой рыцарей. Словом, все те злоупотребления, против
которых восстали английские бароны в первой половине 1215 года. Баронами в Англии в то время называли тех, кто держал землю
непосредственно от короля, то есть наиболее важных феодалов. Они вместе со
своими вассалами объединились, заручились поддержкой других слоев населения,
недовольных правлением Иоанна, – рыцарей, горожан, купцов и прочих свободных
людей, – подняли мятеж против короля и вынудили его подтвердить те права и
вольности, которые уже существовали в Англии к началу XIII века. То есть
Великая хартия изначально была не революционным документом, а, скорее,
подтверждением древних прав и вольностей свободных англичан. Английские короли задолго до Иоанна объявляли
о правах и вольностях и даже издавали соответствующие хартии – например, Генрих I в начале XII века. Но все
эти документы основывались на доброй воле монарха. Иоанн же был вынужден «даровать»
хартию под давлением мятежных баронов и поддержавшего их населения, поскольку
стремился выиграть время и собрать силы для подавления восстания. В таких
непростых условиях 15 июня 1215 года на заливном лугу Раннимид
примерно в тридцати километрах к востоку от Лондона и была принята хартия
вольностей баронов, церкви и свободного населения Англии. Таким образом,
хартия как исторический документ стала мирным договором, или перемирием
короля и мятежников. Part 3 BRIEF
HISTORY OF LAW IN INDIA Law in India has evolved from religious prescription to the current
constitutional and legal system we have today, traversing through secular
legal systems and the common law. India has a recorded legal history starting from the Vedic ages and
some sort of civil law system may have been in place during the Bronze Age
and the Indus Valley civilization. Law as a matter of religious prescriptions
and philosophical discourse has an illustrious history in India. Emanating
from the Vedas, the Upanishads and other religious texts, it was a fertile
field enriched by practitioners from different Hindu philosophical schools
and later by Jains and Buddhists. Secular law in India varied widely from region to region and from
ruler to ruler. Court systems for civil and criminal matters were essential
features of many ruling dynasties of ancient India. Excellent secular court
systems existed under the Mauryas (321-185 BCE) and
the Mughals (16th – 19th centuries) with the latter
giving way to the current common law system. The common law system – a system of law based on recorded
judicial precedents– came to India
with the British East India Company.
The company was granted charter by King George I in 1726 to establish «Mayor’s
Courts» in Madras, Bombay and Calcutta (now Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata
respectively). Judicial functions of the company expanded substantially after
its victory in Battle of Plassey and by 1772
company’s courts expanded out from the three major cities. In the process,
the company slowly replaced the existing Mughal
legal system in those parts. Following the First War of Independence in 1857, the control of
company territories in India passed to the British Crown. Being part of the
empire saw the next big shift in the Indian legal system. Supreme courts were
established replacing the existing mayoral courts. These courts were
converted to the first High Courts through letters of patents authorized by
the Indian High Courts Act passed by the British parliament in 1862.
Superintendence of lower courts and enrolment of law practitioners were
deputed to the respective high courts. During the Raj, the Privy Council acted as the highest court of
appeal. Cases before the council were adjudicated by the law lords of the
House of Lords. The state sued and was sued in the name of the British
sovereign in her capacity as Empress of India. During the shift from Mughal legal system,
the advocates under that regimen, «vakils», too
followed suit, though they mostly continued their earlier role as client
representatives. The doors of the newly created Supreme Courts were barred to
Indian practitioners as right of audience was limited to members of English,
Irish and Scottish professional bodies. Subsequent rules and statutes
culminating in the Legal Practitioners Act of 1846 which opened up the
profession regardless of nationality or religion. Coding of law also began in earnest with the forming of the first Law
Commission. Under the stewardship of its chairman, Thomas Babington Macaulay,
the Indian Penal Code was drafted, enacted and brought into force by 1862.
The Code of Criminal Procedure was also drafted by the same commission. Host
of other statutes and codes like Evidence Act (1872) and Contracts Act
(1872). At the dawn of independence, the parliament of independent India was
the forge where a document that will guide the young nation was being
crafted. It will fall on the keen legal mind of B. R. Ambedkar
to formulate a constitution for the newly independent nation. The Indian Bar
had a role in the Independence movement that can hardly be overstated – that
the tallest leaders of the movement across the political spectrum were
lawyers is ample proof. The new nation saw its first leader in Jawaharlal
Nehru, and a paternal figure in M. K. Gandhi, both exemplary lawyers. Perhaps
it is the consequent understanding of law and its relation to society that
prompted the founding fathers to devote the energy required to form a
Constitution of unprecedented magnitude in both scope and length. The Constitution of India is the guiding light in all matters
executive, legislative and judicial in the country. It is extensive and aims
to be sensitive. The Constitution turned the direction of system originally
introduced for perpetuation of colonial and imperial interests in India,
firmly in the direction of social welfare. The Constitution explicitly and
through judicial interpretation seeks to empower the weakest members of the
society. India has an organic law as consequence of common law system. Through
judicial pronouncements and legislative action, this has been fine-tuned for
Indian conditions. The Indian legal system’s move towards a social justice paradigm,
though undertook independently, can be seen to mirror the changes in other
territories with common law system. From an artifice of the colonial masters, the Indian legal system has
evolved as an essential ingredient of the world’s largest democracy and a
crucial front in the battle to secure constitutional rights for every
citizen. EXERCISES 1. Sum up the main ides of the text and retell
it in Russian. 2. Fill in the missing words from the box into the
text below.
History comprises of the growth, evolution and development of the
legal system in the 1)_________ and sets forth the historical
process whereby a legal system has come to be what it is over time. The legal
system of a country at a given time is not the creation of one man or of one
day but is the 2)_________ fruit of the endeavor,
experience, thoughtful planning and patient labour
of a large number of people through generations. With the coming of the British to India, the 3)_________
system of India changed from what it was in the Mughal
period where mainly the Islamic law was followed. The legal 4)_________ currently in India bears a very close
resemblance to what the British left us with. As per the needs of the
changing times changes and amendments were made, but the procedure which is
followed not has its roots in the era of British-India. Little did the 5)_________
of the English East India Company while establishing their trade in India
know that they would end up establishing their 6)_________ for about 200
years here. But the evolution of law as it is today did not come about in one
go altogether. It was the Presidency Towns individually that were first
affected by this change in hands of the 7)_________
of India after which the steps towards amalgamation of the judicial system
were taken by the Charters of 1726 and 1753. To improve upon this, under the
Regulating Act of 1773 Supreme Courts in the Presidency Towns and then under
the Act of 1798 the Recorder’s Courts at Madras and Bombay were 8)_________. These were 9)_________
replaced by the establishment of the High Courts
under the Act of 1861, which are still running in the country. It was only
after independence in 1950 that the Supreme Court was established. Reforms
and 10)_________ were made in the pre and post
independence eras and are still continuing. Thus law, as we know today has
evolved through a complex procedure which is discussed in detail herein
below. India has a golden 11)_________ of over 5000
years. Therefore a comprehensive study of Indian legal history comprises of
the historical process of development of legal institutions in Hindus and
Muslim 12)_________. The various sources of law relied upon by the kings at that time were shrutis, smritis,13)_________, dharmasutras, dharmashastras,
etc. The Arthashastra and Manusmriti
were influential treatises in India, texts that were 14)_________
authoritative legal guidance. Ancient India represented a distinct tradition of law, and had a
historically independent school of legal theory and practice. The political
structure in the Vedic Period consisted of kingdoms, each tribe forming a
separate 15)_________. The basic unit of political 16)_________ was the kula
(family). A number of kulas formed a grama (village), Gramani being
the head. A group of gramas formed a vis (clan) and a number of vis
formed the jana (tribe). The leader was Rajan (the Vedic King). The king (raja) was the supreme 17)_________ of the legislative, executive and judiciary
branches. The members of the council of minister could give advice to the 18)_________, but final decisions were left to the king. The
ministers and other officials were directly appointed by the king. The sabha and the 19)_________ were
responsible for the administration of justice at the village level. 3. Read the following article and make a rendering
of it in English. Условно текст хартии можно разделить на три группы положений: 1)
подтверждение вольностей различных групп свободного населения, 2) запрет их
нарушения со стороны короля и его чиновников, 3) гарантии на случай
неисполнения хартии. Положения хартии изначально не были разделены на статьи,
но они достаточно четко делятся по тому, в чьих интересах принимались. В
порядке убывания значимости это права и вольности английской церкви, баронов,
рыцарей, горожан и купцов, английских и иноземных, а также всех свободных людей.
Интересы многочисленного лично зависимого населения (вилланов) Великая хартия
не защищала. По предмету регулирования положения хартии касаются в основном порядка
перехода феодальных прав (наследование, опека, несение службы, вступление во
второй брак вдов), осуществления правосудия, порядка взимания феодальных
сборов и исполнения повинностей, торговых и кредитных отношений. Документ
запрещает те злоупотребления короны, против которых восстали английские
бароны и их союзники. Бо́льшая
часть положений подтверждает и гарантирует феодальные права баронов как
наиболее крупной силы, стоявшей за принятием хартии. Знаменитые ныне статьи
хартии, связанные с запретом произвольных задержаний, судом равных и
недопустимостью взимать произвольные поборы, изначально защищали как раз
интересы наиболее крупных вассалов короля. Считается, что основой для Великой хартии послужили «баронские статьи»,
то есть общие требования мятежных баронов к королю. Окончательную редакцию в
июне 1215 года составили при участии архиепископа Кентерберийского Стефана Ленгтона, который отредактировал требования баронов и
добавил статьи в защиту церкви. Скорее всего, Иоанн изначально не собирался соблюдать хартию и уж точно
не считал ее «великой». Она требовалась, чтобы выиграть время, собрать
дополнительные силы против мятежников. Сразу же после ее подписания по
просьбе короля папа Иннокентий III признает
эту хартию недействительной «на вечные времена» и не обязывающей ни Иоанна, ни его наследников, поскольку она подписана под
влиянием угроз, что чистая правда. Папский легат привозит это известие в
Англию в сентябре, через два месяца после подписания. Бароны поднимают восстание,
и начинается Первая баронская война. Силы
противоборствующих сторон примерно равны, но в октябре 1216 года Иоанн неожиданно заболел и скончался. На престол
вступает его девятилетний сын Генрих, который по совету опекуна признает
хартию отца в 1216 и 1217 годах, чтобы заручиться поддержкой подданных против
мятежных баронов, но в более выгодной для себя редакции 1216 и 1217 годов.
Наконец, достигнув совершеннолетия, Генрих III издает хартию в окончательной редакции 1225 года. С тех пор текст
хартии уже не меняется. «Большой» хартия стала сначала благодаря принятию «малой»
Лесной хартии, по которой король обязался не расширять произвольно свои
лесные владения за счет земель баронов. Считается, что в XIII веке
Великая хартия служила документом, вокруг которого консолидируются
недовольные произволом королевской администрации, и в этом смысле она
способствовала возникновению в 1265 году английского парламента, собрания
представителей трех сословий королевства. Наконец, в 1297 году Эдуард I включил
Великую хартию в число статутов королевства, и она приобрела силу закона, а
не монаршей милости. В XV– XVI веках споры вокруг хартии
поутихли. |