Задания по "Муниципальному праву"

         The attorney general is the senior law officer. He/she is also the head of the English Bar. The Prime Minister nominates the attorney general, choosing a person from those members of the Bar who support the government. The Crown then makes the appointment. The attorney general is the government’s chief spokesperson on legal affairs in the House of Commons. The attorney general holds office only so long as the government that chose him/her  remains in power.

         The attorney general or the solicitor general represents the Crown in important legal proceedings. The attorney general also supervises the work of the director of public prosecutions.

         The solicitor general is appointed in the same way as the attorney general, and is subordinate to the attorney general. Like the attorney general, the solicitor general is a member of Parliament and normally a barrister. The solicitor general acts for the attorney general when he/she is not available or when authorized to do so. The government employs many lawyers in addition to the attorney general and the solicitor general. All principal government departments have their own legal advisers. Government departments that do not have their own legal advisers are able to obtain advice from the Treasury  solicitor.

8.    Barristers in the UK

Barrister is a legal practitioner admitted to plead at the Bar. A barrister must be a member of one of the four Inns of Court, by whom he is called to the Bar when admitted to the profession.

         Inns of court was the name given during the early Middle Ages to four groups of buildings in London where lawyers lived, studied, taught, and held court. They stand near the Royal Courts of Justice,

         In the Middle Ages,  young people wishing to study law gathered around famous masters to learn from them. Inns of Court came to mean not only the buildings, but also the legal societies that owned and used them.

         The four legal societies have great importance today. By long custom, only they can admit barristers to practice their profession before the highest courts of England. The phrase ‘admitted to the bar’ had its origin in the Inns of Court. Students became fully fledged barristers when they were finally allowed to leave their seat in the outer court and present a case at the wooden rail (bar). The judges and qualified lawyers sat on the other side of the bar.

         Barristers normally take a three-year law degree at university, followed by a one-year course at Bar school after which they are called to the Bar. Thereafter they take a pupilage in chambers and then seek a permanent place as a ‘tenant’ . The primary function of barristers is to act as ‘advocates’ for parties in courts or tribunals, but they also undertake the writing of opinions and some of the work preparatory to a trial.

         Barristers have the right of audience in all courts: they are either Queen’s Counsel (often referred to as ‘leaders’ or ‘leading counsel’)  or junior barristers.   

9.    Crime Scene Investigation (I)

To a great extent, the very success of the investigation and, perhaps, the chance for a successful prosecution depend on the actions and steps taken by the first officer to arrive at the crime scene.

         The crime scene is the place from which much physical evidence is obtained. It provides the investigating officer with a starting point, a beginning of the investigation to determine the identities of the suspect and victim and to piece together the circumstances of what happened during the crime.  Physical evidence found at the crime scene can be the key to the solution of a crime.

         No matter what the rank of the first officer to arrive at the crime scene, the duties are always the same. The duties remain the same regardless of the seriousness of the crime. The first officer upon arrival at the scene, must assume that the criminal has left physical evidence at the scene. It is the first officer’s duty not to destroy or change anything that may serve to reconstruct the crime or in some way prove the identity of the suspect.

         Errors committed during the interrogation and other aspects of the preliminary investigation can perhaps be corrected, but errors committed in the protection and examination of the crime scene can never be rectified. The eventual success of the investigation can thus be completely dependent upon the measures taken by the officer who first arrives at the crime scene.

10 .Crime Scene Investigation  (II)

The purpose of a crime scene investigation is partly to effect a complete reconstruction of events with respect to the sequence of events, method of operation, motive, property stolen, and whatever else the criminal may have done, and partly to recover the clues that will serve as evidence against the criminal. In fortunate cases, the investigation yields results that point directly to the offender and provide convincing evidence against the offender. Generally, this happens when the criminal’s fingerprints are found at the scene and they are already on file.

         The task of crime scene investigators is thought to be thankless. They are supposed to be magically able to produce complete information as to the identity of the criminal. If they do not succeed in doing that, they are considered to have failed. This attitude is, of course, erroneous. It is the duty of investigators and detectives to track and apprehend the criminal. The duty of the crime scene investigator is to gather all evidence available at the scene. But both must give each other the utmost cooperation.