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4. Equity

Supplementary tasks

Task 1. Read and translate the text. Find in the text the equivalents to
the words and phrases given below. Discuss the text with the partner.

English Law
English Law is one of the major European legal systems, Roman
law being the other. English law has spread to many other countries,
including former English colonies such as the USA, Canada, Australia,
and New Zealand.
English law has an evolving history dating from the local customs
of the Anglo-Saxons, traces of which survived until 1925. After the
Norman Conquest there grew up, side by side with the Saxon shire courts,
the feudal courts of the barons and the ecclesiastical (church) courts. From
the king's council developed the royal courts, presided over by
professional judges, which gradually absorbed the jurisdictions (legal
powers) of the baronial and ecclesiastical courts. By 1250 the royal judges
had amalgamated the various local customs into the system of common
law – that is, law common to the whole country. A second system known
as equity developed in the Court of Chancery, in which the Lord
Chancellor considered petitions.
In the 17th and 18th centuries common law absorbed the Law
Merchant, the international code of mercantile customs. During the 19th
century virtually the whole of English law was reformed by legislation; for
example, the number of capital offences was greatly reduced.
A unique feature of English law is the doctrine of judicial
precedents, whereby the reported decisions of the courts form a binding
source of law for future decisions. A judge is bound by decisions of courts
of superior jurisdiction but not necessarily by those of inferior courts.

Поширюватись, місцеві традиції, церковні суди, слід
(відбиток), судовий прецедент, злочин (що карається смертною
карою), право справедливості, повноваження, позов (ходотайство,
позовна заява), бути зв’язаним, суд нижчої інстанції, суд вищої
юрисдикції.
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