Masters

Attorney-General and Solicitor-General

Together these are known as Law Officers. Both are appointed by the Prime Minister. They are political appointments, and the holders are precluded from private practice while holding office.

a) The Attorney-General is a member of the House of Commons (not cabinet rank). His or her duties comprise the following:

(i) Represents the Crown in the courts in civil matters where the public interest is concerned, and may prosecute in important and difficult cases in the criminal courts.

(ii) Advises the Cabinet and Government departments on important legal matters and may take part in many judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings affecting the public interests, e.g. the administration of charities and patent law.

(iii) Certain criminal offences must be reported to the Attorney-General, and his or her consent is necessary before criminal proceedings may be taken in certain cases, e.g. bribery, incest, corrupt practices, and offences against the Official Secrets Act, 1911 to 1989, the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971, the Public Order Act, 1936, and various other Acts. He or she is head of the English Bar.

b) The Solicitor-General is a deputy to the Attorney-General and his or her duties are similar. He or she is a barrister and is a member of the House of Commons. By the Law Officers Act, 1944, any functions authorized or required to be discharged by the Attorney-General may, unless expressly excluded, be discharged by the Solicitor-General if the Office of Attor­ney-General is vacant, if the Attorney-General is absent or ill, or if the At­torney-General authorizes his or her deputy to act in any particular case.

Vocabulary notes:

Attorney-General	генеральний прокурор
Solicitor-General	замісник генерального прокурора
Law Officers	юристи корони

Task 11. Read & comprehend the text.

Masters of the Supreme Court are salaried officials, lawyers of at least ten years’ standing, attached either to the Queen’s Bench Division or to the Chancery Division of the High Court.

Masters of the Queen’s Bench Division adjudicate on all matters preliminary to a trial. These preliminaries are known as 'interlocutory matters’. Thus one party may wish to inspect documents in the possession of their opponent, or one party may wish to put questions to their opponent to clarify certain points in issue. In these circumstances application may be made to a master for an order for discovery or an order for interrogatories commanding the opponent to produce the required documents or to answer on oath written questions. Disputes may arise as to the most convenient time or place of trial, or whether the trial should be with or without a jury. Such disputes may be decided by a master, from whose decision appeal lies to a judge in chambers. They are appointed from barristers.

Chancery Division Masters perform similar work in their Division of the High Court. They are appointed from among solicitors,

Taxing Mastersare officers of the Supreme Court whose function is the checking, determining, and levying of costs to be paid by parties to the trial when the court so directs.

Vocabulary notes:

Taxing Master	розпорядник по судовим витратам
levying of costs	стягнення коштів

Task 12. Read & write down the annotation.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-17