法律英语-何家弘.docx

Lesson One: Legal System 法律制度 Background背景 自从哥伦布(ristopher Columbus)于1492年航行至美洲之后大批欧洲人便开场拥向这片新大陆。不过人们通常把第一批英国定居者(the first English settlers)于1607年到达弗吉尼亚(Virginia)的詹姆斯顿(Jamestown)视为法律制度历史的起点。法制史可以大体上分为两个时即英属殖民地时(the Period of the English Colonies)和美利坚合众国时(the Period of the United States)。虽然的法律制度是在英国法律传统的根底上形成和开展起来的但是在近四百年的历史进程中的法律制度也形成了一些不同于英国法律制度的特点如公诉制度(public prosecution)等。 属于普通法系(mon Law Legal System)其法律制度有两个根本特点：其一是以分散制(decentralization)为原那么；其二是以判例法(case law)为主体。除联邦外还有州、、、镇等等而且这些都是互相的各自在其辖范围内享有一定的立法权和执法权。因此有人说是一个有许多的(a country of many governments)；而的法律体系那么是一个零散的无系统(fragmental nosystem)。诚然如今也有很多成文法(written law)或制定法(statutory law)但是其法律制度仍是以判例法为主体的。换言之遵从前例(stare decisis)仍然是活动中最重要的原那么之一。以上两点对于理解的法律制度具有重要意义。 Text课文 Part One The United States is at once a very new nation and a very old nation. It is a new nation pared with many other countries, and it is new, too, in the sense that it is constantly being renewed by the addition of new elements of population and of new States. But in other senses it is old. It is the oldest of the new nations--the first one to be made out of an Old World colony. It has the oldest written constitution, the oldest continuous federal system, and the oldest practice of selfgovernment of any nation. One of the most interesting features of Americas youth is that the whole of its history belongs in the period since the invention of the printing press. The whole of its history is, therefore, recorded: indeed, it is safe to say that no other major nation has so prehensive a record of its history as has the United States, for events su as those that are lost in the legendary past of Italy or France or England are part of the printed record of the United States. And the American record is not only prehensive; it is immense. It embraces not only the record of the colonial era and of the Nation since 1776, but of the present fifty States as well, and the intricate network of relationships between States and Nation. Thus, to take a very eleme