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previous cases. Sometimes governments make new laws - statutes – to
modify or clarify the common law. But even statutes often need to be …
by the courts in order to fit particular cases, and these interpretations
become new precedents. In common law systems, the law is, thus, found
not only in government statutes, but also in the historical records of cases.

Task 4. Read and translate the text. Answer the questions to the text
given below.
The Common Law and the Law of Equity Peculiarities
An important feature of the common law tradition is equity. By the
fourteenth century many people in England were dissatisfied with the
inflexibility of the common law, and a practice developed of appealing
directly to the king or to his chief legal administrator, the lord chancellor.
As the lord chancellor's court became more willing to modify existing
common law in order to solve disputes, a new system of law developed
alongside the common law. This system recognized rights that were not
enforced as common law but which were considered "equitable", or just,
such as the right to force someone to fulfill a contract rather than simply
pay damages for breaking it or the rights of a beneficiary of trust. The
courts of common law and of equity existed alongside each other for
centuries, if an equitable principle would bring a different result from a
common law ruling on the same case, then the general rule was that equity
should prevail,
One problem resulting from the existence of two systems of justice
was that a person often had to begin actions in different courts in order to
get a satisfactory solution. For example, in a breach (breaking) of contract
claim, a person had to seek specific performance (an order forcing the
other party to do something) in court of equity, and damages (monetary
compensation for his loss) in a common law court. In 1873, the two
systems were unified, and nowadays a lawyer can pursue common law and
equitable claims in the same court.
The spread of common law in the world is due both to the once
widespread influence of Britain in the world and the growth of its former
colony, the United States. Although judges in one common law country
cannot directly support their decisions by cases from another, it is
permissible for a judge to note such evidence in giving an explanation.
Nevertheless, political divergence has produced legal divergence from
England. Unified federal law is only a small part of American law. Most
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