法律英语教案(全).docx

PAGE  PAGE 69 盐城师范学院 经济法政学院 法 律 英 语 （电子教案打印稿） 任满军主讲 二〇一六年秋学期 Lesson 1 An Unwritten Constitution （The American Constitution） No one can write about or discuss taking account of a document which is the American legal system seriously without a few years short of its 200th birthday: the American Constitution. The Constitution was ratified in 1787, which makes it the oldest written constitution still in force. It is certainly the most legally active. It is not, of course, exactly the way it was in 1787. The Constitution has been amended twenty six times; some of the amendments (the Fourteenth, for example) have been extraordinarily important. But when we consider how the world has changed since1787, twenty six amendments’ do not seem like a lot. Twelve of these had been added to the Constitution by 1804; there have been only fourteen since. A note of caution: when we talk about the influence or effect of the Constitution, we must remember that the Constitution is only a piece of paper by itself. There is no magic in words and phrases. It is not the American Constitution that is powerful, but the constitutional system. It is a system made up, first, of public attitudes toward the Constitution, and second, of behavior patterns and institutions that have grown up around the Constitution. The Constitution itself, important as it is, well crafted as it is, could not and cannot account for the constitutional system. The experience of other countries proves this point. Dozens of countries have written constitutions; but some of these are bad jokes played on the public. The constitution of the Soviet Union, for example, has as many glittering, noble phrases as any other. It promises all sorts of liberties and rights. But it has very little to do with living law or the structure of power in the Soviet state. In this regard, the Soviet constitution has plenty of company. On the other hand, the British have no written constitution, no firm guarantees of