最新法律英语练习题

Lesson Three

Comparing Civil and Criminal Law

I.Discuss the following questions:

1.What are the two objectives of criminal law?

2.What is civil law concerned with?

3.What are the two main branches of civil law?

4.In terms of duties or obligations, what are the differences between contract law

and tort law?

5.How many kinds of torts are mentioned in the text? What are they? What are the

difference and relationship between them?

6.Are compensatory damages and punitive damages the same in nature? Why or

why not? Why are punitive damages seldom awarded?

7.Is it justified to say that a certain person can file a criminal charge against

someone else? Why?

II.Read the text again and decide whether these statements are true or false:

1.As for criminal law, there is just one purpose: to prevent antisocial behavior. F

2.Prevention of bad behavior may be more the consequence of civil law than the

purpose. T

3.The primary purpose of civil law is the compensation of those injured by someone

else’s behavior. T

4. A agreed to lease an apartment from a landlord for one year and A paid the rent for

one year shortly after he moved in. Half a year later A moved out for unknown reasons, and then the landlord had the right to sue A for breach of contract. F 5.Negligent tort has occurred when one fails to act reasonably and unintentionally

injury someone. T

6.Many intentional torts are also crimes and this is where civil law and criminal law

has much in common. T

7.Criminal law is concerned with the immorality of an act while tort law is not. F plete the sentences below using the words or phrases given: undesirable; nonconformity; monetary; compensation; liability; restitution; tortfeasor; battery; fraternity; damages

1.The monetary system of certain countries used to be based on gold.

2.Civil law actually acts to prevent nonconformity to society’s behavior.

3.The court estimated the compensation in money for damages sustained by the

plaintiff in the contract.

4.Since A has not breached the contract, he holds no liability for damage.

5.Restitution means the act of making good or compensating for loss, damage, or

injury, or a return to or restoration of previous state or position.

6.If one at a party heaves a beer bottle and strikes another present either

unintentionally or on purpose, he has committed a tort and he is known as a

tortfeasor.

7.Punitive damages are awarded in civil suits to prevent undesirable behavior by

punishing those who commit outrageous acts.

8.Acts deemed undesirable by society fall within the prevention and punishment

which are two essential reasons for criminal justice system.

9.He was guilty of assault and battery.

10.There is a strong spirit of fraternity of among these isolated people.

IV.Translate the following passage into Chinese:

Crimes and Torts

Criminal law and the law of torts (more than any other form of civil law) are related branches of the law; yet in a sense they are two quite different matters. The aim of the criminal law as we have noted, is to protect the public against harm by punishing harmful results of conduct or at least situations (not yet resulting in actual harm) which are likely to result in harm if allowed to proceed further. The function of tort law is to compensate someone who is injured in the harm he has suffered. With crimes, the state itself brings criminal proceedings to protect the public interest but not to compensate the victim; with torts, the injured party himself institutes proceedings to recover damages (or perhaps to enjoin the defendant from causing further damage). With crimes, as we have seen, there is emphasis on a bad mind, on immorality. With torts the emphasis is more on “the adjustment of the conflicting interests of individuals to achieve a desirable social result”, with morality taking on less importance.

Supplementary Reading

“Tort”is an elusive concept. It has defied a number of attempts to formulate a useful definition. The dilemma is that any definition which is sufficiently comprehensive to encompass all torts is so general as to be almost meaningless.

The one common element of all torts is that someone has sustained a loss or harm as the result of some act or failure to act by another. Virtually all of the infinitely diverse forms of human activity—driving a vehicle, engaging in business, speaking, writing, owning and using real or personal property—may be a source of harm and therefore of tort liability. This diversity of conduct resists broad generalizations, and so does the tort liability on which it is based.

Sometimes, it is suggested that a common element of tort liability is fault, that tortious conduct is that which falls below accepted community standards of behavior. But fault cannot be said to be a universal principle of liability. Various kinds of blameworthy conduct resulting in damage do not give rise to tort liability. Conversely, the law sometimes imposes tort liability simply because a particular activity can and should bear the cost of damage associated with it, regardless of the fact that the conduct of the “tortfeasor” was morally blameless.

If a definition of “tort” is necessary, it will have to be something in the nature of this:

“A civil wrong, wherein one person’s conduct causes a compensable injury to the