Lesson 01 - Introduction to Law and Sources of Law

Even in a well-ordered society, people have disagreements and conflicts arise. The law must provide a way to resolve these disputes peacefully. We need law to ensure a safe society in which people's rights are respected. An essential principle is that the same law applies to everybody, including the police, governments and public officials, who must carry out their public duties according to the law.

3.2 Discuss the following:

a) Give examples how our behavior is regulated by rules.

b) What happens if somebody breaks a law?

c) Give at least three reasons why we need law.

3.3 Collocations - which words from the first and second column go together?

to break

to settle

to carry out

to resolve

to respect

duties

disputes

rights

laws

3.4 Go back to the text and find more useful collocations concerning legal English.

examples: to be subject to…, to face suspension, aggrieved party

4. Group work: Create your definition of law. Below are some words to help you, feel free to use any of them (or none of them):

people enforce power authority reason

morality control rules relations body

society regulate system conduct customs govern

Law can be defined as ….

5. It is not easy to define exactly what law is, most definitions describe what it does and what rules apply. Match the authors to the definitions. Which definition appeals to you?

Plato (Greek philosopher born 427 BC) and Aristotle (Greek philosopher born 304 BC)

Thomas Hobbes (English philosopher born 1588)

John Austin (English jurist born 1790)

Marxist theory

Merriam-Webster English Dictionary

a) A body of rules fixed and enforced by a sovereign political authority.

b) Law is a tool of oppression used by capitalists to control the proletariat.

c) “An embodiment of Reason”, whether in the individual or the community.

d) Law is the formal glue that holds fundamentally disorganised societies together.

e) LAW: (1) a binding custom or practice of a community: a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority (2) the whole body of such customs, practices, or rules

6. There are more Czech words which correspond to the English word “law” depending on the context. Which words are they? What are the translations of the following entries from the Oxford dictionary?

Law Pronunciation: /lɔː/ Noun

1 [mass noun] (often the law) the system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties: shooting the birds is against the law they were taken to court for breaking the law [as modifier]:law enforcement

• [count noun] an individual rule as part of a system of law:

a new law was passed to make divorce easier and simpler

• systems of law as a subject of study or as the basis of the legal profession:

he was still practising law

[as modifier]:a law firm, law students

• something regarded as having binding force or effect:

he had supreme control—what he said was law