1_ Translate the following legal text into colloquial Farsi 2_ Place the Persian and English text side by side in the table 3_ From the beginning to the end of the text, there should be an English sentence on the left side and a Persian sentence on the right side.
       4- Using legal language for Persian translation

          .1 The Nature of Law
WHAT IS MEANT BY LAW
It is difficult to be precise as to what law is, but it may be defined as a code of conduct for the people in a given community,which controls their activities towards each other,with respect to their private and business lives, and to their relationship with the State.
It is generally agreed that law must be accepted by the majority of the community. Most road-users recognise the necessity for all drivers travelling on the same side of the road,or stopping at traffic lights when they show red. Even if there was no punishment for these offences,the majority of drivers would still follow the Highway Code because they know it is the sensible thing to do.
Most associations and sports are govemed by laws or rules. The laws of cricket are observed by cricketers throughout the world, but they are not "law” in the context we are discussing. To be effective, law must be binding on the whole community and must be enforceable. Members of a community do not have to play cricket, and those who do play may agree to change the rules for their own benefit or convenience,but people in this country may not ignore or change the law to suit themselves.Holidaymakers,for example,could play cricket on the beach and ignore the cricket law relating to "leg before wicket",and also create a law that a hit into the sea is "six and out". They could not, however,ignore the criminal law and decide to have gunfights as seen in western films on television most Saturday nights. In R. v. Moloney (1985) two men staged a friendly shooting contest to see who had the faster “draw”. Although there was no intention for either to be hurt,one was shot and died. The survivor was found guilty of manslaughter. It is against the law to kill or attempt to kill, and members of the community have no choice as to whether the law applies to them or not.
Law often reflects a country's moral values. Generally, it is very difficult to define moral conduct,because one person might consider an act to be moral while another person might consider the same act to be immoral.A person might contribute to the National Lottery which will result in someone winning a large sum of money and the net profits of the lottery being donated to a charity. Another person, however, may consider the lottery to be gambling and therefore immoral and wrong,although recognising that the aim of benefiting a charity is worthwhile.
The difficulty with a moral attitude to law is that moral values change with time and  
locality.The country's attitude to homosexuality,prostitution. suicide, censorship of plays and pornography has changed drastically over rccent years and the law has changed accordingly.There ure many people who still consider such things to be immoral.but Parliament has probably considered that the attitude of a large part of the community has changed and has consequently passed the appropriate legislation to make certain conduct lawful which was previously unlawful.
Until a few years ago public-houses in Wales did not open on Sundays. but several counties in the Principality changed this law because the community's attitude had changed.Similarly, in recent years there has been a largc scale change of law with regard to professional sport taking place on Sundays and shops opening on this day.Many people consider this to be wrong, for various reasons, but the Government considers that the majority of the eommunity want these sports and activities to be-available on Sundays.
Moral and religious attitudes do have a great effect on our law. "Thou shall not kill","thou shall not steal” are not only religious commandments, they are also legal commandments. This is because the community as a whole considers it wrong to steal or to kill, and it would still be against the law for a starving person to steal food or to kill for food(see p.232).
Since the end of the Second World War,legislation dealing with the eommunity's welfare has been introduced on a huge scale. The State has decided that in many aspects of life,it must provide for the needy. The benefit of this legislation is available to all whoqualify.The lowest-paid worker and the managing director of the largest company may be entitled to the same State pension when they reach the age of 60 for women and 65 for men.The community has recognised the need to help the less fortunate and Parliament has passed laws to comply with this attitude.
It might be considered that everything a person does is affected by some element of law.If you attend school,college or work, there are Acts of Parliament which govern the condition of the buildings.the hours of attendance, etc. Law affects you when you travel,buy a newspaper, play a radio, enter a football ground, go to the pictures and so on.It is important.therefore,that we should have some knowledge of our law and how it works and is administered.
It should be noted that this book deals with English law,and that it affects the people who live in England and Wales.Scotland has its own system of law.
How good or effective is English law? If you ask a person who has just won a legal case,the answer may be "English justice is the best". but if a person has lost a case on a technical point of law,the reply to the question could be "The law is an ass".
The aim of law should be justice, but as a legal system becomes advanced and sophisticated it is possible that the “letter of the law" becomes more important than the "spirit of the law".It is then possible for a decision of the courts to be legally correct,but not to have achieved justice. In Re Bravda (1968) a will had four witnesses.although a valid will only requires two. The last two witnesses were to benefit under the terms of the will and the testator only wished them to be aware of the existence of the will and its contents. However,because the Wills Act 1837 provided that witnesses of a will cannot benefit from the will,the court ruled that they could not receive tbeir inheritance.
In this case the letter of the law was followed, but the intentions of the testator were defeated and the outcome for the last two witnesses was certainly not justice. It should be noted that Parliament quickly changed the law to provide for such an occurrence(Wills Act 1968). but it did not help tbe two persons concerned in the case.  
3							THE NECESSITY FOR LAW
The difficulty in defining law and the nature of law is that it concerns cultural, moral,religious and egalitarian values,together with political policy and philosophy. But whatever the nature of law, if it is to be effective, it must encompass and bind the whole community,and it must be enforceable. A law that cannol, or will not,be enforced, is in effect no law at all.
THE NECESSITY FOR LAW
 
Headlines such as these are commonplace and their like can be seen in newspapers most days of the week. If there was no system of law, the persons responsible for the above events would be under no fear of punishment or sanction by the State or community in general. Murder is considered by modern society to be a terrible, heinous offence. It is,therefore,essential that there is an established procedure for providing that murder is a crime and that murderers will be punished. It is essential in a civilised community that there is a clearly defined criminal law which may be enforeed,and a system of law for determining commercial and private disputes, and providing a means of compensation for injured parties.
If a community did not have a system of law which was capable of being enforced,the strongest person, or group of persons, could dominate with arbitrary and unfair rules, or there could be anarchy,with no form of establishment and individuals following the dictates of their own conscience. If a community is to develop as a fair and free society, law must be present to ensure that an individual's rights and freedoms are protected.As a community develops its industry and business, its law must similarly develop and create a system which will ensure that transactions may take place with reasonable certainty,that disputes will be settled and that breaches of law will be enforced or compensated. It is not a coincidence that as business in the world has developed over the last 100 years,so has mercantile and company law, and the law dealing with insurance, revenue and taxation,consumer protection,industrial relations and similar matters.
Law is not only needed to ensure that offenders will be punished,it creates a code of  
THE NATURE OF LAW                                                                                                                 4
conduct which a community wishes to follow.The Factories Acts and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 created laws to protect workers from injury by placing a duty on an employer to provide a safe place of work. Drivers of motor vehicles are required to be insured, so that a third party injured in an accident will be compensated for any loss suffered.Shopkeepers have to refund the cost of goods which customers retur because they are not of satisfactory quality,and manufacturers may be liable for damage caused by defective products.
A community has its own values and its law should reflect these values. Laws are not made to be broken, but to be followed.
All breaches of civil or criminal law are not necessarily deliberate.The examples mentioned above could result in a breach of law which was not intentional; an employer may have created a dangerous place of work by accident; a motor accident could have been caused by the negligence of the driver,and a shopkeeper may not have known that the goods were unsatisfactory.Yet all three may have committed an offence or a breach of law.There have been breaches of law because the community created the laws and requires individuals to behave or conduct themselves accordingly for the benefit of the community as a whole.
DIVISIONS OF LAW
English law is usually classified as being either public or private law.
1.Public Law
Public law is the law which governs the relationship between the State and individual members within the State, and between one State and another. This division of law comprises several specialist classes of law such as:
(a)Criminal Law
Crime affects the whole community and as offencs are considered to be against the State,they are punished by a system laid down and administered by the State.
Criminal law is designed to protect the public from attack on their individual property or person, and to enable any individual or group of individuals to perform their rights and duties under the law. Although a crime is against the State, an individual may suffer from the offence,so, as will be seen below in "Private law”,in addition to the punishment laid down by the State, the individual will be able to obtain compensation for personal loss.
(b) Constitutional Law
This branch of law deals with the method of government within the State. Constitutional law affects the general public, in that it provides for the structure of the legislature (in this country the Houses of Parliament),the formation of the Executive (the Cabinet),the courts and legal system (the Judiciary) and the system of administration for both local and central  
5                                                                                                                        DIVISIONS OF LAW
government.The laws created and administered by these bodies affect the rights,duties and freedoms of each individual within the State. Ideally,there should be a separation of the powers of Executive,legislature and judiciary, but in this country only the latter exercises a separate power.
(c)Administrative Law
As the Govemment has legislated for the provision of a large number of benefits for individual members of the State (e.g. welfare benefits),the courts and administrative tribunals (usually set up by the Government) have developed a body of laws and principles to regulate and control the agencies which administer the legislative provisions.
Administrative law is usually concerned with appeals and complaints from individuals against the ministerial agencies.
2.Private Law
This division of law is sometimes called civil law and is contrasted with criminal law. The latter deals with offences against the State,while civil or private law concems the dealings between individual members of the State. When the State starts an action the case is usually called in the name of the monarch. Regina is used when a Queen is on the throne and Rex when there is a King. For convenience, a criminal case is usually written as R.v.Brown.In civil cases the names of the individual parties are used: Smith v.Brown.The first named is usally called the plaintiff (the person bringing the action) and the second name is the defendant.
Because civil law only affects the individuals involved, it does not mean the State is not concemed or involved. In many instances the State will have created the law which regulates the conduct between the individuals, and will also administer the courts to hear disputes which have arisen.The main distinction may be that in a criminal case,the State brings the action, and stipulates and administers the punishment,while in civil cases an individual starts the action and the courts award the wronged individual the remedy best suited to the situation. For example,in breach of contract or negligence a sum of money called damages may be sufficient compensation but if a trespasser refuses to leave another person's land,an injunction may be needed to ensure the trespasser leaves the land.
Civil remedies are discussed on p.74.
The main classes of civil law are as follows:
(a)Law of Contract
An agreement between two or more persons which is intended to be legally binding.
(b) Law of Tort
A recognised civil wrong other than a breach of contract or trust. Torts cover such wrongs as trespass, negligence,nuisance and defamation.  
THE NATURE OF LAW                                                                                                                  6
(c)Law of Property
The rights of individuals to ownership and possession of their property,both land and personal property (chattels). The law of succession deals with wills and how property is distributed after death.
(d)Family Law
The law conceming marriage,divorce and separation, and the responsibilities,and duties of parents to each other and to their children.
(e) Welfare Law
As administrative law (see above) deals with disputes arising from the provision of State benelits,welfare law is concered with the rights of individuals to obtain State benefits, and the rights and duties of parties with respect to housing and employment.
HOW THE LAW HAS GROWN
It was the Norman conquest of 1066 which established the basis of the English common law.Before William the Conqueror arrivedthe laws and courts varied from area to area,and there was no system which applied to the country as a whole. It was not the intention of the Normans to introduce new laws,their aim being to discover the laws that existed and make them uniform and applicable to the whole country.
The Normans set up te Curia Regis (the King's Council) which had judicial powers,as well as being the administrative centre for making laws and raising finance.The importance of the Curia Regis in the development of English law was that it probably led to the establishment of Parliament, and it allowed the creation and development of the various common law courts.
The court wascomposed of the tenants-in-chief of the Crown, who were high-ranking persons and barons. All the land of the country belonged to the King, and the tenants-in-chief were those who received the land directly from the King.Other members of the court were the chief officers and officials of State.
The aim of the Normans was to establish a system of law which would cover and apply to the whole country.Common law means that it is the same law for all; that it is shared by and affects all persons alike; common in this meaning does not mean low, cheap or inferior.
Although William I established the Curia Regis, it was in the reign of Henry II(1154-1189) that great steps were taken to develop common law. Judges were sent out to tour the country to settle disputes and administer justice, and eventually to deal with criminal matters.The judges would return to discuss their cases and problems and from these discussions they were able to create a uniform common law. As law developed,the jurisdiction of the Curia Regis gradually diminished as new courts were introduced.The principal common law courts were:  
7                                                                                                       HOW THE LAW HAS GROWN
(a) The Court of Exchequer
This was so called because the table or bench of the court was covered with a black and white chequer (like a chessboard). This court was usually concemed with financial and revenue matters.
(b) The Court of Assize
This was concemed with criminal and civil matters, although later it dealt mainly with criminal cases. The country was divided into areas (circuits) and the itinerant judges travelled the country to administer the law. This court was in existence until 1971,when it was replaced by the Crown Court.
(c)The Court of Common Pleas
This was a civil court, dealing mainly with cases concering disputes over land,between subjects other than the King.
The court was established to hear cases in Westminster while the King travelled the country.It was staffed by full-time judges who had been serjeants-at-law (barristers).The cost of legal actions washigh and the costs for this court in particular were very expensive,therefore only the wealthy could afford to take legal action, and as the main source of wealth was ownership of land this court was very important.The court was abolished by the Judicature Acts 1873-1875 and its jurisdiction was eventually transferred to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court.
(d)The Court of King's Bench
This court had criminal and civil jurisdiction and could hear appeals. Originally the court had civil jurisdiction, dealing mainly with the tort of trespass and the law of contract.
The court was the last of the three main courts to leave the Curia Regis, and the King's close association with the court gave it jurisdiction to issue the prerogative writs of mandamus,prohibition and certiorari (see p. 112). The court used a legal “fiddle" to take cases from the Court of Common Pleas by means of the fictitious Bill of Middlesex procedure.The court had power to hear cases when a defendant was in custody therefore the Sheriff of Middlesex would arrest a defendant on a fictitious trespass action,and then the court would hear the real cause of action and drop the other.A defendant was usually pleased because it meant the case was not heard in the Common Pleas with its expensive costs.The court was abolished by the Judicature Acts and most of its jurisdiction was transferred to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court.
(e) The Courts of Exchequer Chamber
The first court of this name was established in 1357 to hear appeals from theExchequer.A later court was created to hear appeals from the King's Bench, and in 1830 a court was  
THE NATURE OF LAW                                                                                                                  8
created to hear appeals from all the commnon law courts.The count was abolished by the Judicature Acts 1873-1875 and its jurisdiction was transferred to the Court of Appeal.
In addition to the above, other courts were established to deal with the growth of trade,both national and international. The Counts of the Law Merchant.the Pie Powder Courts and the Courts of Staple, administered instant justice at markets and fairs,but eventually the work of these courts was taken over by the Common Law Courts.
THE WRIT SYSTEM
Henry Il also developedthe writ system.A writ was a royal command to attend court and it had the effect of centralising the jurisdiction of the courts. If a person wished to start an action, it was necessary to obtain a writ from the King's Chancellor, which meant that the royal courts acquired more power. The Judicalure Acts 1873-1875 abolished the forms of action,but it is still necessary today to obtain a writ to start certain actions, although the wording of the claim is left to the plaintiff, and there is no danger of the case being lost because of a mistake in the format of the claim.
Writs originally began with a statement of the claim which was common for all writs of a similar nature. The wording on the writs was prepared beforehand for only a limited number of actions, and if a plaintiff had a new or different claim it would be difficult to bring an action before the courts.The clerks began to issue new writs for actions not previously covered,thereby widening the scope of the writ system and helping the development of the common law.
Because the barons considered that the issue of new writs took away their power the Provisions of Oxford 1258 was passed which provided that no writs were to be issued for any new actions. This statute had the effect of severely restricting the development of the common law.To alleviate the harshness and inconvenience of this law the Statute of Westminster 1285 provided that new writs could be issued which were similar (in consimili casu) to existing writs.The effect of this statute was that the common law saw further development,but it could still be very difficult to bring a claim before the count if it was for an action that could not easily be adapted into an existing writ.
In addition to the difficulty of obtaining a suitablc writ, an action could fail for a minor or simple mistake in the wording of thc claim in the writ.
EQUITY
The writ system became very formal and as previously explained could only be issued for particular forms of actions. If there was no writ for a particular complaint,or one could not be adapted.there was no cause of action and, no matter how justifiable the complaint. an injured party could not obtain a remedy.If there was no writ there was no remcdy.
To overcome the harshness of the writ system, appeals were made directly to the King.who made decisions ou the facts of the case. As appeals grew in number.the King passed them to his Lord Chancellor. The earlier Chancellors were also the King's chaplain (often referred to as the “Keeper of the King's conscience").and because of their ecclesiastical  
9								REVISION TEST
calling, their decisions tended to ignore the formal rules of law and were based on conscience and natural justice.
A separate Chancery Court was eventually established to hear the many appeals which were referred to this form of justice. In many instances decisions were contrary to those made in the common law courts and this led to disputes between the two courts.In the early seventeenth century, James I, on the advice of Sir Francis Bacon,ruled that in cases with contrary decisions,equity should prevail. This decision saw an extension of the work of the Chancery Court and new concepts of law were introduced such as the law of trusts (common law would not recognise a trust or the duties of trustees),and new remedies were provided.
Damages was the only common law remedy. Equity offered new remedies such as injunctions, specific performance and rescission (see p. 144). The main problem was that the courts could only award their own particular remedy.If a person bringing an action for trespass was asking for damages and an injunction to stop the othcr party from continuing the trespass,the litigant would have to go to the common law court for damages,and then start another action in the Chancery Court for the injunction. This situation existed until the middle of the nineteenth century when piccemcal legislation enabled both courts to award each other's remedies.
The main disadvantage of equity was the difficulty of foreseeing with any certainty the result of a case.Decisions varied from judge to judge, and theuncertainty of the outcome of cases led to the opinion at that time that the Chancellors' decisions varied as did the length of their feet.
Equity eventually became a formalised system, but procedure was very slow and,consequently,very expensive,as Dickens criticised in “Bleak House".
It must be noted that common law was a complete system of law;equity was not.Equity was considered as the polish, “the gloss on the common law", which helped to improve the legal system and fill in any deficiencies. The Judicature Acts 1873-1875, whilst confirming that in matters of conflict equity should prevail, fused the administration of the Chancery Court with the common law courts. It is unlikely that any new cquitable concepts would be created today.
As a result of the Acts, the common law courts and the Court of Chancery were joined together under the Supreme Court of Judicature,which comprised the Cour of Appeal and the High Court of Justice.For convenience,the High Court was divided into thee divisions:Queen's Bench;Chancery; and Probate,Divorce and Admiralty.
REVISION TEST
The questions in the revision test sections usually require short answers of a few words.Answer the questions,preferably on a separate sheet of paper and check your answers from within the pages of the chapter. The correctness (or otherwise) of the answers should indicate your understanding of the chapter. If you find the questions difficult,read the relevant section again.
1.Name two specialist classes of public law.
2.Name three classes of civil or private law.  
3.To which class of private law does negligence and trespass belong?
4.Name the system whose harshness led to the establishment of Equity.
5.Name the Acts which fused the administration of the Chancery Courts with the common law courts.
SPECIMEN EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
1. Explain what is meant by Equity, and explain how defects in the common law lead to the introduction of Equity.
2.What were the changes to the legal system introduced by the Judicature Act 1873-1875? Draw a diagram of the structure of the courts as a result of the Acts,and compare it with the present-day structure.
3.If Parliament did not have the power to make law would the United Kingdom have a system of law?
4.Describe the early writ system and explain how it led to the growth of Equity.
5.Comment on the statement, “a law that cannot be enforced isin effect no law at all”.
SUGGESTED COURSEWORK TITLES
What is law? Why do you think it is necessary for a community to have a settled system of law?
Explain how Equity came into English law and discuss its role in today's legal system.Do you consider judges should have the right to give equitable decisions?