1. WHAT IS MEANT BY LAW?
Unit 1

2. Structure 1. Definitions of law 2. Purpose of law
3. Classification of law
4. Law and morality
5. Law and religion
6. Law and justice:Revill v Newbery (1996)
7. Exercises
8. Legal terms

3. What is law? ‘Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely
Law is as I’ve told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose, Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law’
(W.H.Auden. Extract from Law is Like Love)

4. Lead-in
1. How would you define law?

5. Definitions
- a system of rules that is backed by a sanction for its breach, ultimately enforceable by courts.
- a formal mechanism of social control.

6. Definitions of law
‘The body of principles recognised and applied by the state in the administration of justice‘ (Sir John Salmond)
‘A command issued from a Sovereign power to an inferior and enforced by coercion'. (John Austin)

7. Definitions of the law
The most common definition of the law in English legal textbooks: “(1) rules of conduct (2) imposed by a state upon its members and (3) enforced by the courts.”

8. The concept of law Ideas that underlie the concept of law:
1) order, in the sense of method or system; and
2) compulsion, i.e. the enforcement of obedience to the rules or laws laid down.

9. Law: translation equivalents
zakon
pravo
propis
pravilo
pravna znanost
pravna profesija

10. Functions of law
1) It lays down certain basic rules. Murder is wrong. So is theft. Legal rules against these and other forms of antisocial behaviour are the most obvious instances of legal regulation.

11. Functions of law
2) The law establishes a framework within which disputes may be resolved.
Courts are the principal forum for the resolution of conflict.

12. Functions of law
3) It facilitates certain social and economic arrangements.
It provides the rules to enable parties to enter into the contract of marriage, employment, or purchase and sale. Company law, inheritance law, property law furnish the means by which we are able to pursue the activities that constitute social life.

13. Functions of law
4) Another major function - the protection of property.
Rules identify who owns what and this determines who has the strongest right or claim to things.

14. Functions of law 5) the protection of individual rights.
The law of many countries includes a bill of rights as a means of protecting individuals against the violation of rights that are considered fundamental. In some cases a bill of rights is enshrined in a constitution

15. The purpose of law
to set up authoritative mechanisms whereby social order can be established and maintained, social change managed, disputes settled, and policies and goals for the community adopted.

16. Law and religion History: law closely linked to religion
Today: law should not be used to support religious order
Law should protect the ability of those of different religious beliefs to hold and practise their religion (European Convention of Human Rights, Article 9)

17. Law and morality: natural law
Natural law has a long history dating back to ancient Greece.
Its proponents believe that certain rights or values are inherent by virtue of human nature and can be universally understood through human reason.

18. Law and morality: legal positivism
For legal positivists, law is a collection of valid rules, commands, or norms that may lack any moral content.
Legal positivists do not deny that legal rules often coincide with moral principles, but they insist that such a connection with morality is not a necessary feature of the concept of law.

19. Law and morality
The moral standards of a community have a profound influence on the development of law; but
in complex societies, morality and law are never likely to be co-extensive.

20. Law and morality
Major breaches of a moral code (such as murder and robbery) will also be against the law; but in other matters there may not be a consensus (e.g. abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage).

21. Differences between law and morality
Morality cannot be deliberately changed; law - altered by legislation
Morality: no official sanction; individual’s sense of shame or guilt; law makes certain behaviour obligatory with legal sanctions to enforce it
Breaches of morality – not subject to formal adjudication; breaches of law -ruled on by a formal legal system

22. Hart v. Fuller debate
At the heart of the debate was a decision of a post-war West-German court. In 1944, during Nazi rule, a woman denounced her husband to the Gestapo for insulting remarks he had made about Hitler's conduct of the war. The husband was tried and sentenced to death, though his sentence was converted to service as a soldier on the Russian front.

23. Hart v. Fuller debate
After the war the wife was prosecuted for being responsible for her husband's loss of liberty. Her defence was that he had committed an offence under a Nazi statute of The court convicted her on the ground that the statute under which the husband had been punished offended the 'sound conscience and sense of justice of all decent human beings'.

24. Hart v. Fuller debate
H.L.A. Hart, Professor of jurisprudence at Oxford, contended that the decision of the court was wrong because the Nazi law of 1934 was a formally valid law.

25. Hart v. Fuller debate
Prof. Lon Fuller of Harvard Law School, argued that, since Nazi 'law' deviated so much from morality, it failed to qualify as law. He defended the court's decision, though both jurists expressed their preference for the enactment of retroactive legislation under which the woman could have been prosecuted.

26. The tale of king Rex For Fuller, law has an 'internal morality'.
A legal system is the purposive human 'enterprise of subjecting human conduct to the guidance and control of general rules'.

27. The tale of king Rex
A legal system must conform to certain procedural standards, otherwise what seems to be a legal system is simply the bare exercise of state coercion.
The 'inner morality of law‘: 8 essential principles, failure to comply with any one of them suggests that 'law' does not exist in that society.

28. The tale of king Rex
King Rex, who neglects these 8 principles: 1.He fails to make rules at all, deciding questions ad hoc.
2.He fails also to publicize the rules.
3.He enacts rules which are retroactive, difficult to understand, contradictory, and which require conduct beyond the powers of the affected party.

29. The tale of king Rex
4. His rules change so often that his subjects cannot adjust their actions by them.
5. There is no correspondence between the rules as announced and their actual administration.

30. The tale of king Rex
King Rex's failures are, Fuller explains, mirrored by 8 forms of 'legal excellence' which are embodied in the 'inner morality of law'.

31. Eight forms of legal excellence according to Fuller
1.generality,
2.promulgation,
3.non-retroactivity,
4.clarity,
5.non-contradiction,
6.possibility of compliance, 7.constancy,
8. congruence between declared rule and official action.

32. Law and justice
It is often said that the law provides justice, yet this is not always so.
Justice - the ultimate goal towards which the law should strive; it is unlikely that law will ever produce 'justice' in every case.
In some situations people's concept of justice may not be the same

33. Law and justice
Justice can be seen as applying the rules in the same way to all people, but even this may lead to perceived injustices

34. Law and justice
Rigid application of rules may actually produce injustice.
Justice can be attained by a legal system if its rules are reasonable, general, equal, predictable, and certain.
None of these objectives can be achieved in absolute terms; they are ideals.

35. Law and justice An impartial, independent judicial system
A competent and independent legal profession
Procedural justice: access to legal advice, assistance and representation; the guarantee of a fair trial

36. Law and the State
Laws apply to a defined geographical area usually corresponding to the territorial limits of a State

37. What is the State?
A State is a territorial division in which a community of people lives subject to a uniform system of law administered by a sovereign authority, e.g. a parliament.

38. Composition of the UK
The United Kingdom, comprising England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, is a state.
In the UK there is not a single legal system.

39. The UK legal systems
English law and the English legal system apply in England and Wales.
Many aspects of the legal system of Scotland - markedly different: as opposed to the legal system of England and Wales, the legal system of Scotland has been considerably influenced by Roman law.

40. Form nouns and adjectives from the verbs where applicable
(PERSON)
(OBJECT)
ADJECTIVE
apply
claim
constitute
contract
enforce
resolve
violate

41. Match the terms with their definitions
1.breach
A punishment for an act which goes against what is generally accepted behaviour
2.claim
A General agreement
3. consensus
B The place in which a case is being heard
4. dispute
C Property which is received by someone from a person who has died
5. enforcement
D Things that are owned by someone
6. forum
E An assertion of a legal right
7. inheritance
F Failure to obey the law
8. property
G The power to force someone to comply with the law
H A disagreement or argument between parties

42. Classification of law
The legal order has a systemic character: each element of the order forms part of a greater whole.
Law can be classified by: 1) the type of law (i.e. matters that the law is regulating) and 2) the source from which it comes.

43. Substantive and procedural law
While substantive law regulates areas of human activity, procedural law sets down rules for the manner of enforcing the law in relation to that activity.

44. Substantive and procedural law
Substantive law - the body of rules of law which regulate the rights, duties and liabilities among citizens and governments.
Procedural law lays down the rules governing the manner in which a right is enforced under civil law, or a crime is prosecuted under the criminal law.

45. National and international law
National law - the law which applies within a State: each State has its own national law and there are often considerable differences between the laws of individual states.
One branch of national law is the law relating to conflict of laws, otherwise known as private international law, which determines which national law governs a case in which there is a foreign element

46. Public international law
Public international law governs the relationships between states and other entities operating on the international plane.  
It is contained in conventions and treaties devised and agreed to by states

47. National law Public (involves the State or government)
Private (disputes between private individuals or businesses)

48. Public law
Constitutional law
Administrative law
Criminal law

49. Constitutional law
Constitutional law has been defined as the rules which regulate the structure of the main branches of government, namely the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, and their relationship to each other, and determine their main functions. Moreover, constitutional law defines the rights of the citizens.

50. Administrative law
Controls how Ministers of State or other public bodies such as local councils should operate
Judicial review – review by a higher court of the actions of a lower court or of an administrative body (nadzor nad zakonitošću; sudska kontrola; sudski nadzor; postupak protiv javnih tijela i službenika

51. Criminal law
Criminal law sets out the types of behaviour which are forbidden at risk of punishment.
A person who commits a crime is said to have offended against the State, and so the State has the right to prosecute them.
At the end of the case, if the defendant is found guilty, the court will punish them for the offence, because they have broken the criminal law.

52. Private law Also: civil law
Contract, tort, family law, law of succession, company law, employment law

53. Introduction to law: basic terms
The following terms introduce you to the law and basic legal terminology:
Authority, court, govern, judge, law enforcement agency, lawyers, legal action, legal system, legislation, rule, the judiciary, tribunal
Below are definitions. Find the definition for each term.

54. 1. A body that is appointed to make a judgement or enquiry_________
Authority, court, govern, judge, law enforcement agency, lawyers, legal action, legal system, legislation, rule, the judiciary, tribunal
1. A body that is appointed to make a judgement or enquiry_________
2. a country’s body of judges________
3. an act or acts passed by a law-making body_______
4. behaviour recognized by a community as binding or enforceable by authority_____

55. 5. legal proceedings_______
Authority, court, govern, judge, law enforcement agency, lawyers, legal action, legal system, legislation, rule, the judiciary, tribunal
5. legal proceedings_______
6. an official body that has authority to try criminals, resolve disputes, or make other legal decisions_______
7. an organization responsible for enforcing the law, especially the police_____
8. a senior official in a court of law______

56. 11. members of the legal profession_____
Authority, court, govern, judge, law enforcement agency, lawyers, legal action, legal system, legislation, rule, the judiciary, tribunal
9. The body or system of rules recognized by a community that are enforceable by established process _______
10. the control resulting from following a community’s system of rules_______
11. members of the legal profession_____
12. to rule a society and control the behaviour of its members

57. Introduction to law: basic concepts
Complete the following text about basic legal concepts using the following words and phrases. Use each term once: authority, court, govern, judges, law enforcement agency, lawyers, legal action, legal systems, legislation, rule, the judiciary, tribunal

58. authority, court, govern, judges, law enforcement agency, lawyers, legal action, legal systems, legislation, rule, the judiciary, tribunal
Why do we have laws and legal systems? At one level, laws can be seen as a type of _____which is meant to ____ behaviour between people. We can find these rules in nearly all social organizations, such as families and sports clubs.

59. authority, court, govern, judges, law enforcement agency, lawyers, legal action, legal systems, legislation, rule, the judiciary, tribunal
Law, the body of official rules and regulations, generally found in constitutions and____, is used to govern a society and to control the behaviour of its members. In modern societies, a body with ____, such as a ____ or the legislature, makes the law; and a ____, such as the police, makes sure it is observed.

60. authority, court, govern, judges, law enforcement agency, lawyers, legal action, legal systems, legislation, rule, the judiciary, tribunal
In addition to enforcement, a body of expert____ is needed to apply the law. This is the role of ____, the body of _____ in a particular country. Of course, legal systems vary between countries, as well as the basis for bringing a case before a court or ____. One thing, however, seems to be true all over the world – starting a ____is both expensive and time-consuming.

61. The subject matter of the legal system
Lawyers often divide the law into criminal and civil. Classify the following terms into the appropriate column. Two terms can appear in both columns:
Criminal
Civil

62. Classify the following:
Compensation, contract, crime, damages, family law, intellectual property, plaintiff, police, private individual, prosecution, the accused, the defendant, theft, to bring a case, to bring an action, to fine, to charge someone with something

63. Read the text and decide if the terms relate to civil or criminal law or both
Most civil cases are settled out of court. If the claimant sues the defendant the case is heard before a single judge who decides on fact and law in a civil court. If the judge finds the civil case proven, they enter judgment for the claimant.  They may make an order, e.g. an award of damages, against the defendant. If the judge does not find the case proven, they enter judgment for the defendant.

64. Read the text and decide if the terms relate to civil or criminal law or both
The prosecutor prosecutes the defendant, or the accused, in a criminal court. Criminal cases are heard without a trial if the defendant pleads guilty.  If the accused pleads not guilty, the case goes to trial. In common law countries, the jury decides issues of fact and passes the verdict: guilty or not guilty. The judge rules on points of law and passes a sentence on the defendant, e.g. a fine or a term of imprisonment. If the judge and the jury find the case is not proven, they acquit the defendant.

65. Legal terms: general
Adjudication: the act of giving a judgement or of deciding a legal problem
Sudska odluka, donošenje odluke, sudski postupak
adjudicate

66. Legal terms
Appeal: the act of asking a higher court to change a decision of a lower court
Žalba
Submit/bring an appeal
Uložiti žalbu
Dismiss an appeal
Odbaciti žalbu

67. Legal terms: general
Court: a body established by law for the administration of justice by judges
Tribunal: a specialist court outside the judicial system which examines special problems and makes judgements
Lawyer: a wide term which refers to all professionals working in the legal profession; it does not refer to a specific job

68. Legal terms: general
Jurist: a person who has specialised in the study and practice of law
Pravni stručnjak
Enforce: to make sure something is done or is obeyed
Provoditi (odredbe, zakone), primijeniti
Avenge: If you avenge a wrong or harmful act, you punish the person who is responsible

69. Legal terms: general
Neglect: failure to do a duty; a lack of care towards someone or something
Nebriga, nemar, zanemarivanje
Infraction: breach, violation, infringement
Kršenje, povreda
Coercion: the use of force to make someone to do some act
Prisila, prinuda

70. Legal terms: criminal law
Criminal proceeding
Kazneni postupak
Criminal offence
Kazneno djelo

71. Legal terms: criminal law
Criminal charge: an official statement in a court accusing someone of having committed a crime
Optužnica
To answer charges: to plead guilty or not guilty
To withdraw/drop charges
Odbaciti optužbe
To charge someone with a crime
optužiti

72. Legal terms: criminal law
Prosecute
Podignuti optužnicu
Plead
Izjasniti se o krivnji
Sentence
(osuđujuća) presuda, kazna
To pass sentence on someone: to give a convicted person the official legal punishment

73. Legal terms: civil law Dispute: disagreement between parties
Spor, parnica
Civil proceedings
Parnični postupak
Plaintiff (claimant)
Tužitelj u građanskom postupku; podnositelj tužbe, oštećenik
Bring an action
Pokrenuti postupak

74. Legal terms: civil law Claim Tužbeni zahtjev u građanskom pravu
Damages
Novčana naknada, (novčana) odšteta
Claim damages
Tražiti odštetu
Award damages
Dosuditi odštetu

75. Translate:
What exactly do we mean by “the law”? Law is a common word, so common that most people never stop to consider what it means. Even jurists and social scientists find it hard to define the term law.

76. Questions for discussion
Is it necessary for a society to reach a particular level of development before law can play a useful role?
What are the consequences for a country or society of not accepting the importance of the rule of law?
Can law protect the economically weak?

77. Questions for discussion
What should be the relationship between law and morality? When should things we disapprove of be made unlawful?
How successful is law in shaping human behaviour?

78. Thank you for your attention!