Legal English

• Types of law systems

  • Common law systems
  • Continental/Civil law systems
• Structure of UK/US laws

  • Precedents, unwritten law
  • Codes, enacted law, statutes
• Parts of UK/US laws

  • Chapter, part, title, subpart/chapter, section/article, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph
• Commonwealth countries and USA are mentioned in relation to law systems
• Unwritten law is not formally enacted or made by Parliament
• Written law is formally enacted or made by Parliament
• Equity


  Part of English legal system which modifies and completes the common law, prevailing in case of conflict
• Legislation


  Laws or written rules passed by Parliament and implemented by the courts, a significant source of new law
• Divisions of law

  • Private law
  • Public law
• Private law includes

  • Law of trusts, law of torts, land law, law of contracts, law of probate, family law
• Public law includes

  • Administrative law, constitutional law, criminal law, international law
• Types of law

  • Civil law
  • Criminal law
• Civil law seeks to redress wrongs by enforcing compensation or restitution
• Criminal law imposes punishment on wrongdoers fulfilling aims of retribution, deterrence, and possibly reformation
• Types of law based on behavior

  • Descriptive law
  • Prescriptive law
• Customs


  Ways of behaving or beliefs established for a long time
• Rules

  An accepted principle or instruction stating the way things are or should be done
• Laws


  Rules made by a government to order the way a society behaves
• Types of law based on function

  • Substantive law
  • Procedural law
• Substantive law


  Creates, defines, and regulates rights and duties of parties in the proceeding
• Procedural law


  Prescribes the method of enforcing rights or obtaining redress for their invasion
• Types of law

  • Contract law
  • Criminal law
  • Tort law
  • Law of wills
• Procedural law


  Prescribes the method of enforcing the rights or obtaining redress for their invasion
• Aspects of procedural law

  • Law of evidence
  • Law of jurisdiction
  • Law of pleading
• Tort (delikt)


  Wrongful act, unlawful conduct which causes harm, damage, injury to a person, property or reputation
• Contract (smlouva)

  A binding agreement made between two or more parties stating the details of promises
• Will (závěť)


  A legal document where a person states how they want to dispose of their property when they die
• Probate (soudní potvrzení závěti)


  Arrangements for dealing with an owner's property after their death
• Trust (svěřenectví)


  A property arrangement aiming at transferring the property to one or more trustees who become the legal owner(s) holding and administering the property for the benefit or advantage of another person or a group of persons or for a specific purpose
• Crime

  Illegal behaviour, unlawful conduct, a wrongful act which is prosecuted and punished by the State
• Plaintiff/Claimant (žalobce)


  A party who takes legal action against somebody in a civil case
• Defendant (žalovaný)

  A party who is either sued for damages or compensation because of causing harm to somebody else or charged with committing an offence
• Prosecutor (žalobce)


  A party who brings a criminal charge against the defendant
• To petition (navrhnout)


  To make a formal written request
• Remedy (náprava, odškodnění)


  A court order to enforce compensation for loss
• Injunction (soudní příkaz)


  A court order to do something, or to stop doing something
• Specific performance


  A court order for a party to perform the actions required under a contract
• Damages (náhrada škody)


  A sum of money which the court orders the defendant to pay to the plaintiff as compensation for a breach of contract or tort
• Types of law

  • International law - regulation of relations between governments and also between private citizens from one state and those from another
  • Constitutional law - regulation of how law itself operates and of the relation between citizens and government
• Types of procedure

  • Civil procedure - plaintiff sues the defendant (found liable), the compensation is usually amount of money (damages), doing or not doing something (injunction) or specific performance; case is proved on the balance of probabilities (důkazní úroveň) usually started by an individual person, civil action can be brought also against police
  • Criminal procedure - prosecution prosecutes the defendant, when found guilty accused is convicted (obviněný je uznán vinným) and can be sentenced of imprisonment (odsouzen k odnětí svobody) or has to pay a fine or some other form of punishment or may be released on probation (propustit podmínečně), the guilt of the criminal must be proved beyond the reasonable doubt (důvodná pochybnost), usually started by the state, when the defendant is found not guilty, then it leads to his acquittal (zproštění/osvobození)