书城外语法律专业英语教程
7676100000004

第4章 Law and Legal Systems 法和法律制度(4)

These three branches are granted different powers by the ( 7), but they must work together. No branch is allowed to do what is likewithout the considering the opinion of the other two. This makes it difficult for persons like Hitler usurp power in America. But the strict division of power tends to make government less ( 8)and might cause trouble, as during the debate about the slavesystem.

III Paragraph translation from English into Chinese.

The U.S.court system, as part of thefederal systemof government, is characterized by dual hierarchies: there are both state and federal courts. Each state has its own system of courts, composed of civil and criminal trial courts, sometimes intermediate courts of appeal, and a state supremecourt. Thefederal court systemconsists of a series of trial courts ( districtcourts) serving relatively small geographic regions, circuit courts of appeal that hear appeals from many district courts in a particular geographic region and theSuprem e Court of theUnited States.

IV Paragraph translation from Chinese into English.

美国是普通法系国家。每个州依据普通法有一个法律体系,除了路易斯安那州(其依据的是《法国民法典》)。普通法系没有成文法的基础,法官通过在断案中适用从前的案例(先例)来建立普通法系。尽管明显地受到成文法权威的影响,但大多数法律,特别是关于财产、合同及侵权仍旧是普通法系的传统部分。这些领域的法大多由州管辖,因此州法律是普通法系的基本渊源。

V Exploring question.

Please try to know something about the American judicial system by looking up related resources.

Legal Assistance ( Legal Aid)

Most liberal democracies consider that it is necessary to provide some level of legal aid to persons otherwise unable to afford legal representation. To fail to do so would deprive such persons of access to the court system. Alternately, they would be at a disadvantage in situations in which the state or a wealthy individual took them to court. This would violate the principles of equality before the law and due process under the rule of law.

A number of delivery models for legal aid have emerged. In a“staff attorney”model, lawyers are employed on salary solely to provide legal assistance to qualifying low-income clients, similar to staff doctors in a public hospital. In a“judicare”model, private lawyers and law firms are paid to handle cases from eligible clients alongside cases from fee-paying clients, much like doctors are paid to handle Medicare patients in the U.S. The“community legal clinic”model comprises non-profit clinics serving a particular community through a broad range of legal services ( e.g. representation, education, law reform) and provided by both lawyers and non-lawyers, similar to community health clinics.

Legal aid in the U.S.

Legal aid in the United States appeared as early as the 1870s, but for the most part, the U.S. legal aid system remained piecemeal and underfunded until well into the 20th century. In the early 1960s a new model for legal services emerged. Foundations, particularly the Ford Foundation, began to fund legal services programs located in multiservice social agencies,based on a philosophy that legal services should be a component of an overall anti-poverty effort.

Legal aid for civil cases is currently provided by a variety of public interestlaw firms and community legal clinics, who often have“legal aid”or“legal services”in their names. Such firms may impose income and resource ceilings as well as restrictions on the types of cases they will take, because there arealways too many potential clients and not enough money to go around. Common types of cases include: denial or deprivation of government benefits,evictions,domesticviolence,immigration status,and discrimination. Some legal aid organizations serve as outside counsel to small nonprofit organizations that lack in-house counsel. Funding usually comes from charities, private donors, the federal government and some local and state governments. Most typical legal aid work involves counseling,informal negotiation,and appearances in administrative hearings, as opposed to formal litigation in the courts. However, the discovery of severe or recurring injustice with a large number of victims will sometimes justify the cost of large-scale impact litigation. Education and law reform activities are also sometimes undertaken.

Legal aid organizations that take LSC ( Legal Services Corporation) money tend to have more staff and services and can help more clients, but must also conform to strict government regulations that require careful timekeeping and prohibit lobbying and class actions. Many legal aid organizations refuse to take LSC money, and can continue to file class actions and directly lobby legislatures on behalf of the poor. Many organizations that provide civil legal services are heavily dependent on Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts for funding.

However, even with supplemental funding from LSC, the total amount of legal aid available for civil cases is still grossly inadequate. According to LSC s widely released 2005 report Documenting the Justice Gap in America: The Current Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-Income Americans, all legal aid offices nationwide, LSC-funded or not, are together able to meet only about 20 percent of the estimated legal needs of lowincome people in the United States.

Legal aid in Scotland

In Scotland, legal aid is in principle available for all civil actions in the Court of Session and Sheriff Court with the significant exception of actions of defamation. It is also available for some statutory tribunals, such as the Immigration Appeal Adjudicator and the Social Security Commissioners.There is a separate system of criminal legal aid, and legal aid is also available for legal advice.