UNIT 1

MAGISTRATES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

In England and Wales there are two types of magistrates: lay magistrates 1 known as
lay justices, who have the title of “justice of the peace”, and stipendiary magistrates 2. The
former is a body of men and women which has been in existence since the fourteenth century
and is called on to pass judgement on their fellow citizens, without any real legal training. The
latter is a body of lawyers, called upon3 to do substantially the same job, which dates from the
eighteenth century. They both exercise their powers in a less formal court than the other
courts, known as Magistrates’ Courts, and deal with more cases than any other English court
of law.
The main job of the magistrates is to deal with 4 civil and criminal cases which are too
trivial to be tried by the Crown and County Courts. The courts consist of two to seven unpaid
lay magistrates, but in some cities professional magistrates may sit alone. The Magistrates’
Courts of civil jurisdiction have limited civil jurisdiction, mainly related to domestic
proceedings5.
In terms of their criminal jurisdiction the Magistrates’Courts deal with something over
95% of all cases. The English legal system divides criminal offences into three categories:
- “summary offences”6 is the category of minor crimes such as minor assaults,
begging, parking offences and less minor crimes such as drinking and driving which are tried
without a jury;
- “indictable offences”7 are more serious offences for which the police are given a
power of arrest and which will be tried by jury; murder, manslaughter 8 and serious fraud – all
come within this category;
- a number of offences called “either way” offences which may or may not be tried by
a jury at the request of the defendant. The best example is theft 9 which may involve either
very small or very large amounts of money.
The magistrate’s criminal jurisdiction is mainly limited to summary and either way
offences (where the defendant may elect not to have a jury trial). Anyway, magistrates have
an important role to play in serious criminal proceedings. When a person is charged with are
indictable offence, magistrates sit as examining justices to decide whether the prosecution’s
case is strong enough to warrant10 committing the accused for trial in the Crown Court. The
procedure is known as “committal proceedings”. They also issue arrest and search warrants to
the police.
The civil jurisdiction of the magistrate is limited to minor matters including
matrimonial and family matters and the granting of licenses.
Justices of the peace are chosen by the Lord Chancellor on the advice of Advisory
Boards, that are concerned with recruiting magistrates from amongst the “worthy” members.
Many justices of the peace are chosen on the recommendation of an existing magistrate. It
seems that others are chosen for their background in voluntary work such as in churches or
youth organisations. They are not paid a salary but receive expenses incurred 11 in the
performance of their judicial duties. They are assisted by “clerks to the justices”, solicitors or
barristers of at least seven years’standing, who perform the administrative work of the court.
Stipendiary magistrates are to be found in most of the large towns and cities of
England and Wales. They are full-time members of the Court chosen by the Queen on the
advice of the Lord Chancellor. They receive wages or a “stipend” 12 and unlike lay magistrates
they may sit alone.
 VOCABULARY

1) lay magistrate = magistrat nesalariat

2) stipendiary magistrate = magistrat salariat
3) to call upon = a chema, a mobiliza
4) to deal with = a se ocupa de, a trata despre
5) domestic proceedings = procedură legată de juris-dicţia internă
6) summary offence = infracţiune judecată în faţa Curţii Magistraţilor
7) indictable offence = infracţiune gravă judecată la “Crown Court” cu juraţii
8) manslaughter = omucidere involuntară
9) theft = furt
10) to warrant = a autoriza, a mandata
11) to incur = a suporta, a asuma

COMPREHENSION CHECK

I. Answer the following questions:

a) How many types of magistrates are there in England and Wales?

b) What do you mean by “lay magistrates”? What about “stipendiary”?
c) Which is the main job of the magistrates?
d) What sort of offences do they deal with?
e) What does the magistrate’s criminal jurisdiction consist in?
f) What is the civil jurisdiction of the magistrate limited to?
g) Who are the “justices of the peace”?
h) Do magistrates play any role in indictable offences?

II. Give the Romanian equivalents of the following English terms for different
types of crimes:

 drunken driving  theft

 kidnapping  bribery and corruption
 indecency  armed robbery
 assault  rape
 arson  parking offence

III. Match each of the terms on the left with the correct explanation on the right:

 attempt 1) any physical attack on the person

of another
 arson 2) entry into any secured, dwelling
house, building, warehouse, or any
other secured structure for the
purpose of committing a crime
 burglary 3) any offence involving the
obtaining of something of value using
false statements, false documents,
counterfeit currency, or representing
 oneself as an official person.
4) an action taken to commit the
 assault criminal act intended without success
or completion
5) the deliberate destruction or
 criminal damage of another’s property by fire;
damage this may include public property
6) the use of force, fear or threat to
 bribery induce another to perform an action,
not perform an action, or to acquire a
thing of value from another.
7) offering, giving or causing to be
 extortion offered or given to any official person
acting in an official capacity anything
of value with the intention to alter or
influence the person’s decisions or
actions.
8) the deliberate destruction or
 fraud damage of another’s property, not by
offence fire.

IV. Fill in the blanks with the missing words:

A _______ magistrate, otherwise known as a _______ of the _______ deals with

_______ and criminal cases that are not serious enough to go as far as the Crown or County
Courts. Unlike ______ magistrates, who receive a _______ and are allowed to sit ______,
they can claim only _______ that arise in the course of their _______ duties. Magistrates
handle all ______ offences as well as some “_______” offences, where the defendant prefers
a ______ without ______ . They also decide which cases should be referred to the higher
_____, during what is termed _________ proceedings.

V. Translate into Romanian:

The law of criminal procedure regulates the modes of apprehending, charging and
trying suspected offenders; the imposition of penalties on convicted offenders; and the
methods of challenging the legality of conviction after judgment is entered. Litigation in this
area frequently deals with conflicts of fundamental importance for the allocation of power
between the state and its citizens
When a criminal offence has been reported, the competent authority commences the
criminal process by investigating the circumstances. In this phase, relevant evidence is
collected and preserved for a possible trial. The suspect also has the right to collect evidence
in this favour.

VI. Translate into English:

Nu există nici o diferenţă de domeniu, natură şi scop între regula morală şi cea
juridică. Regula morală pătrunde în drept prin intermediul concepţiilor etice ale legiuitorului
sau judecătorului sau, în cel mai bun caz, rătăceşte la frontierele dreptului pentru a pătrunde
atunci când se iveşte prilejul.
Obligaţiile morale legiferate sunt: responsabilitatea civilă, interzicerea îmbogăţirii fără
justă cauză, executarea contractelor, exercitarea neabuzivă a drepturilor conferite de lege.
Când legea nu mai e conformă cu principiile morale va cădea în desuetudine.

VII. Discussion:

 What are the major differences between this system and that of your country with
regard, for example, to the handling of criminal cases at first instance?

FOCUS ON GRAMMAR

SEQUENCE OF TENSES

 In English, the tense of the verb in the subordinate clause is determined by the tense of
the verb in the main clause;
 The dependent verb shows time in relation to the main verb. This phenomenon is
known as SEQUENCE OF TENSES

TIME TENSE IN THE MAIN TENSE IN THE

RELATION CLAUSE DIRECT OBJECT
CLAUSE
AT THE PRESENT TENSE PRESENT TENSE
SAME TIME He says he doesn’t know
the truth
PAST TENSE PAST TENSE
John knew everything was all
right
EARLIER PRESENT TENSE PRESENT
I know PERFECT
you have done
your lessons.
PRESENT TENSE PAST TENSE
The students don’t what I taught them
remember last week.
PAST TENSE PAST PERFECT
They didn’t remember what I had taught
them the week
before.

LATER PRESENT TENSE FUTURE TENSE

She hopes he will come soon.
FUTURE IN THE
PAST TENSE PAST
She hoped he would change
the subject.
 I. Change the main verb in each sentence to the SIMPLE PAST. Then change the
verb in the subordinate clause according to its time relation to the main verb.

a) Mr. Barton claims that he has spoken to those people.

b) We know they are tired.
c) Bill thinks his brother needs your help.
d) I suppose Michael will finish the work next week.
e) Edward thinks he won the first prize in the competition.
f) We assume the meeting will be over around six o’clock.
g) I remember that the the wind blew very hard the week before last.
h) She hears that Professor Johnson is writing another book.
i) We guess our friends haven’t heard the good news yet.
j) The message indicates Dr. Evans will be back from Bucharest next Saturday.

II. Use past forms for these auxiliaries after a main verb in the past:

For CAN, use COULD

For MAY, use MIGHT
For MUST, use MUST OR HAD TO
For SHALL, WILL, use WOULD

1. Richard regretted that he ________ (not) go with us.

2. We are sure that Tom _______ help us with the homework.
3. I regret that we ________ leave now.
4. Kate thought she __________ find someone to explain everything to us.
5. They didn’t know that we ________ leave at once.
6. Our friend had to promise Mike that we ________ help him.
7. We regret that we ________ stay only fifteen minutes longer.
8. Daniel said he ________ send the parcel the next day.

III. Put the verbs in brackets into the right tense:

1) Yesterday grandpa ………… (take) a nap from 2.00 to 3.00. I ……….. (get) home
at 2.30. When I ……….. (come) in, grandpa …………. (sleep).
2) Tom: I ……. (be) in your native town last month. It ……… (look) like a nice town.
I ………… (never, be) there before.
Ann: What ……….. (you, do) in that part of the country?
Tom: My sister and I ……….. (drive) to Braşov to see our grandparents
3) Laura ……….. (start) to read a novel by Mihail Sadoveanu. She ……… (not,
finish) reading it yet. She ……… (read) it because her Romanian teacher …………. (ask) her
to.
4) The weather ……….. (be) terrible lately. It ……….. (rain) off and on for two days
and the temperature ……….. (drop) at least twenty degrees. Just three days ago the sun
…………. (shine) and the weather ………….. (be) pleasant. The weather certainly
………….. (change) quickly here. When I ………….. (wake) up tomorrow morning, maybe it
………… (snow).
5) Last night I ………….. (go) to a party. When I …… (get) there, the room ……….
(be) full of people. Some of them ………. (dance) and other …………. (talk). One young
woman ……… (stand) by herself. I ……….. (never, meet) her, so I ………….. (introduce)
myself to her.

IV. Translate into English

a) Zburam de treizeci de minute când mi-am dat seama că am plecat de acasă fără să
închid ferestrele.
b) Toţi s-au dus să vadă filmul de îndată ce profesorul le-a povestit romanul.
c) N-am putut face excursia deoarece ploua de trei de zile.
d) Când am ajuns la cinema, filmul începuse de mult.
e) Vânzătorul plecase deja acasă când am ajuns noi la magazin.
f) Ne plimbăm de o jumătate de oră când ne-am întâlnit cu Frank.
g) Mă dusesem deja la culcare când mi-am adus aminte că nu am încuiat uşa.
h) Te vom aştepta în faţa teatrului când se va termina piesa.
i) Când Mary va absolvi facultatea, va fi studiat aici patru ani.
j) Sandra spera că se va putea duce la plimbare cu Michael dacă îşi va termina
lucrarea.
k) Ce-ai mai făcut de când nu ne-am mai văzut?
l) Nici nu terminase de gătit că a şi sosit soţul ei.
m) Se gândea că dacă pleacă imediat o să ajungă acasă înainte de miezul nopţii.
n) Soarele a răsărit, dar bate un vânt rece.