Task 2. Mark the statements which are true.

1. The legal system of the country depends greatly on its social traditions and form of government.

2. Court decisions form the basis of common-law systems.

3. Judges were forbidden to do anything with the precedent to make it suit a particular case.

4. Erroneous and outdated precedents could be rejected by judges.

5. The role of legislature in lawmaking has decreased greatly.

6. Legislative acts form the basis of civil-law systems.

7. The minority of civil-law countries have assembled their statutes into codes.

8. Civil law systems are based on the Roman system of statute and code law.

9. The USA and other English-speaking countries have a civil-law system.

10. The final decision to any question of law is provided by the courts in civil-law countries.

11. Among the countries which combine both civil law and common law are most Latin-American countries.

12. Common-law principles have influenced public law in these countries greatly.

Task 3. Complete the following sentences.

1. Legal systems can be classified as ….

2. There are countries which combine ….

3. Many years ago the common-law system ….

4. Judges could expand precedents to ….

5. In case any precedent was an error, judges could ….

6. It is considered that common law countries have kept ….

7. The role of legislatures in common-law countries ….

8. The power of judges to make laws is ….

9. Defending the people’s rights and liberties remains ….

10. Codes are ….

11. Civil-law systems are based on ….

12. Every decision of judges should be based not only on ….

Task 4. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space.

The spread of common law in the world (1)___ due both to the once widespread influence of (2)___ in the world and the growth of its former (3)___, the United States. Although (4)___ in one common law country cannot directly support their decisions (5)___ cases from another, it is permissible (6)___ a judge to note such evidence in giving (7)___ explanation. Nevertheless, political divergence has (8)___ legal divergence from England. Unified federal law is only a small part of American law. Most of it is produced by (9)___ states and reflects various (10)___. The (11)___ of Louisiana, for example, has a Roman (12)___ form of law which derives from its days (13)___ a French colony. California has a case (14)___ tradition, but its laws are (15)___ as extensively as many Continental systems. Quebec is an island of French (16)___ in the Canadian sea of case law. In India, English (17)___ law has been codified and adopted alongside a Hindu tradition of law, Sri Lanka has inherited a criminal (18)___ from the Russian law introduced (19)___ the Dutch, and an uncodified civil law introduced by the British.