• 2) What is odd in the sentences?

a) The police uniform includes: a shirt, slacks, a cap, a radio, two pairs of handcuffs, a handkerchief, a flashlight, a set of keys, a notebook, a heavy stick, and a 38 Smith and Wesson gun.

b) Policemen have to write reports on everything – complaints, curriculum vitae, parking offenses, burglaries.

• 3) Who are the victims of crimes? What does the text say about it?

7.18 escape plot

• 1) Say whether the problem of a prison security is covered in this text.

• 2) Find the reasons for a full-scale search of the prison near Yorkin the text.

A suspected plot to free prisoners from two high-secu­rity jails in Britain is under in­vestigation.

A full-scale search of the prison near York, last­ing two days, was completed over the weekend. Nearly 600 prisoners were then allowed out of their cells to resume normal routines after what was de­scribed as the “full lock-down” search.

But prison authorities said an investigation was continuing into the alert, understood to have started after the discovery of impressions of master keys in the cells of former prison inmates. All the locks at the top-secu­rity prison were changed during the operation.

The Prison Service refused to comment on reports that an escape plot was uncovered after a bar of soap containing a mas­ter-key impression was discov­ered in a cell vacated last week by a prisoner, Tomas Quigley, who is now complet­ing his 18-year sentence.

It was also reported that two other bars of soap found bore impressions of keys from the Prison in south Lon­don, which also houses foreign prisoners. A detailed sketch plan of the prison was also said to have been discovered in the cell of another serving prisoner at the prison near Cork.

• 3) Find professionally-relevant terms in the text. Define them.

• 4) Put the events in the correct / logical order:

a) Two other bars of soap bearing impressions of keys from the Prison in south Lon­don were found.

b) A full-scale search of the prison near York was undertaken.

c) A detailed sketch plan of the prison was discovered at the prison near Cork.

d) Tomas Quigley discov­ered a bar of soap containing a mas­ter-key impression;

e) Nearly 600 prisoners were allowed out of their cells in York.

7.19 OUTLINES OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

(AFTER CHALMERS AND ASQUITH’S)

• 1) Look through the text and make a supposition which category of readers it will be interesting for. Prove your supposition.

• 2) Read the text and find the sentences which explain the following:

a) “unwritten Constitution”;

b) “flexible” Constitution;

c) theory and practice concerning English constitutional law are divergent;

d) differences between the English and American Constitutions.

To understand English constitutional law it is necessary to study numerous documents, including constitutional treaties like the Bill of Rights, various statutes and judicial decisions and others. But the whole of the Constitution of Britain will not be found in any of these documents. The English Constitution, though partly written, is yet to be regarded as “unwritten” from the standpoint of constitutional lawyers, as it is not codified as a whole in any particular document or documents. The English Constitution is considered to be flexible because Parliament can “make or unmake” any law by the same procedure and with the same ease.

The Constitution is not the source of the law, but the law gives birth to the Constitution.

Though the King (Queen) is the nominal Sovereign, any particular Parliament during the period of its existence is legally supreme.

In England the rights of the subject are mostly deduced from actual decisions in which remedies have been afforded for their invasion. Thus it is sometimes said that under the English Constitution the remedy precedes the right.

In administering justice the Judges enjoy little arbitrary power. The law which they administer is defined by statutes and other documents having statutory validity, and by judicial precedents.

England is the only country possessing hereditary legislators.

Theory and practice concerning English constitutional law are divergent, as it is seen from the following illustrations:

• In theory the Sovereign is to be an active party to the making of laws, but in practice he has a shadowy veto.

• In theory every Lord of Parliament is a Judge of the House of Lords, entitled to take part in appeals from the lower Courts; in practice he always absents himself unless qualified by statute to sit there as one of the quorum.”

• In theory certain persons (e.g. Lord Moor) are invested with judicial powers at trials in the Central Criminal Court, but in practice they don’t take part in judicial work there.

• In theory certain public departments are supposed to be controlled by boards consisting of various high officials (e.g. the Board of Trade), but the real head is a single Minister of the Crown (e.g. the President of the Board of Trade).

• Finally, Legislature and Executive are joined together by a connecting chain – the Cabinet.

Certain important Conventions control the entire working of the Constitution. These Conventions relate to the duties of the King as a person, the duties of the Ministers of the Crown and so on.

Differences between the English and American Constitutions:

• In America the President is in practice more of a ruler than the English King; but his legal powers are more restricted.

• The President can veto legislation, and the English King has legally an absolute but in practice a very shadowy power of veto which has not been exercised since long times.

• The English Constitution is flexible, the American – rigid, i.e. in England all laws can be altered with ease, and in America complicated machinery is necessary for the alteration of the Constitution.

• The American Constitution is written; the English Constitution is unwritten.

• The English Crown is inherited; the American President is elected for a term.

• The American President is not dependent on the vote of the Congress; in England the Cabinet is dependent on the vote of the House of Commons. In America, therefore, the Executive is not responsible to the Legislature.