It is _________________ that judges wear wigs in court. （custom)

那司机不理睬警察的警告，终于惹了麻烦。

Fill up each gap with an appropriate word given below: legislatures lacking supreme force power major approved despite interest covered precedents similarly left handling judges The law itself comes from several sources: constitutional law, treaties, statutes, executive orders, administrative regulations, and common law. The U.S. Constitution is the 1_________ law of the land that takes precedence over any of the other categories. Each state also has a constitution that 2__________takes precedence over any state law (within its own state, of course). The federal government can enter into treaties with other countries that also have the 3___________ of law. The president negotiates these treaties, which must then be 4____________by two-thirds of the Senate. Statutes, law passed by 5__________, are the types of law most of us are likely to think of when we are asked about sources of law but sometimes the executive (president or governor) is permitted to issue regulations that have the force of law. Often, administrative agencies are given the power to make regulations that have the force of law. For example, the Federal Communications Commission has the 6___________to license broadcasters, but Congress left it to the commission to issue regulations to determine which stations best serve the public 7_________. Such decisions can mean the gain or loss of millions of dollars. As government has grown, Congress and state legislature, 8_________ the time and resources to go into every detail, have more and more 9__________ the power to make these regulations, known as administrative law, in the hands of regulatory agencies. This has been a 10__________ change in our legal system since the Constitution was first adopted. 11__________ all these sources of law, situations can still arise that are not 12_________by any of them. When this occurs, it is up to 13_________ to determine the law. In doing so they turn to a body of past cases setting out rules for 14_________such problems. These rules, based on 15__________ dating back to precolonial England, are known as the common law. This means that judges not only interpret the other types of law but can also make law.

Wilson v Dagnall [1972] 1 QB 509 Court of Appeal (Lord Denning MR, Megaw and Stephenson LJJ) Statute – effective date Facts The plaintiff’s husband was killed in a motor accident in 1969. On 19 March 1970 she commenced proceedings claiming, inter alia, damages under the Fatal Accident Acts. The hearing was on 27 July 1971: the defendant admitted liability and formal judgment was entered on 30 July. On 1 July 1971 the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1971 received the Royal Assent and the Act stipulated that it was to come into force on 1 August 1971. The Act provided (in s4) that, in assessing damages under the Fatal Accidents Acts, no longer was account to be taken of a widow’s prospects of remarriage. As the 21- year- old plaintiff enjoyed such prospects, the judge assessed her damages as though the 1971 Act were already in force. The defendant’s appeal was heard in December 1971. Held (Lord Denning MR dissenting) The judge had been wrong to apply the 1971 Act and the plaintiff’s damages would therefore be reduced to take account of her prospects of remarriage. Megaw LJ: ‘It is natural to feel sympathy for this young widow, as against an anonymous insurance company. But it cannot be proper for a court of law to decide a case in favor of a plaintiff on the basis of sympathy, if the law of the land, as laid down in an Act of Parliament, provides otherwise. Whenever the law is changed by an Act of Parliament, there are likely to be cases which can be regarded as hard cases. That would not have been avoided if, for example, Parliament had provided- as it deliberately did not provide- that the change in the law was to take effect on the date when the Act was passed, 1st July 1971. For in that event the cases decided by the courts in the days or weeks preceding 1st July (instead of, as now, 1st August) could equally have been regarded as hard cases: hard, because they fell so close to the dividing line but on the wrong side of it for the plaintiff concerned. Yet a dividing line there must be. The only question is: what is the dividing line which Parliament has chosen to lay down? Parliament has unambiguously said that the Act is to come into operation on 1st August 1971. To my mind there is no ambiguity about that nor any doubt as to its effect. It means that Parliament has ordained that up to that date, 1st August 1971, the law is to remain as before. I do not know why Parliament so provided. But that it did so provide is beyond dispute. I should have thought it was also beyond dispute, as an essential part of the unwritten constitutional law of England, by which courts of law are ineluctably bound, that those courts must loyally give effect to what Parliament has provided, and not seek to give effect to what they may think that Parliament ought to have provided. If Parliament has made a mistake, it has full sovereign power to correct the mistake. It follows that in my judgment the learned judge could not lawfully treat s4 of the Act as though it was already in force on 27th July. The judge’s decision was wrong and contrary to law. It ordered the defendant to pay money which, in law, the defendant could not lawfully be ordered to pay to the plaintiff. I do not regard it as relevant that the delivery of the judgment or the drawing up of the order could, as a matter of fact, have been postponed by the judge until 31st July had come and gone and the Act had come into operation.’ Questions 1. How many parts can this case be divided into? What are they? 2. Which two judges agreed with the ruling? Who dissented? 3. Why did the defendant appeal? 4. Why did the judges of the Court of Appeal reverse the first ruling?

Fill up each gap with an appropriate word given below: consolidate fashion nor referred to or subordinate terms based therefore however code cases confusingly compiled enact The meaning of the word ‘code’ will vary according to whether it is being used by lawyers trained in the English common law tradition, or lawyers brought up in the civil law tradition. In the civil law system, a 1_______is an authoritative, comprehensive and systematic collection of general clauses and legal principles, divided into Books or Parts dealing in a logical 2¬¬¬¬______ with the law relating thereto. Civil law codes are 3________ regarded as the primary source of law, to which all other sources are 4________, and often the only source of law on a particular matter. 5________, codes have also been 6_________ in common law jurisdictions, particularly for procedure and, in 7_______ of sheer volume, the United States have more ‘codified’ laws than any other country. 8 _________ the cardinal feature in a common law code is that it is 9________ pre-existing law (usually a combination of cases and statutes) and is neither designed, 10_________ intended to be a formulation of all inclusive rules. In other words, common law codes are generally enacted to 11 ______ the law on a particular area, or to clarify an area of law which has become unsettled, obscure or confused. It is exceedingly rare for a common law code to attempt to 12 ______ new rules or new concepts. Despite the enactment or compilation of various codes in common law jurisdictions, 13 _______ (or judicial decisions) generally retain their clarificatory significance and will continue to be 14______ as sources of law if there is any ambiguity in the statute, 15______ if there is a perceived ‘gap’ in the legislation which could then be filled by an existing judicial decision. In terms of style and organization, the format and structure of a typical common law statute is quite different from that of a civil law statute or code.