【英语趣味课堂】美国法庭-American Court

 Todd: Katia, we've been talking about law and international law. Now you worked in Argentina for an NGO, a non government organization, related to law. What kind of courts did you work for or work with?

Katia: Actually it's one court. The Inter-American Court but also before bringing a case into the court, we had to work with the Commission, with the Inter-American Commission first so it's two different entities¹, the Commission and the Court.

 

Todd: Can you first explain the Court, so Inter-American Court that's all the countries in South America?

 

Katia: Actually this is the countries of South America, Central America and North America, so it's North and South America.

 

Todd: So how does the Court work?

 

Katia: Well, the judges are from different countries of Latin American countries and the US for example or Canada and once a case is seen by the Commission, the Inter-American Commission, if the person that is suing wants to continue the sue or the state has not done what it is supposed to do, then it can be taken into the Court and then the Court will decide whether the state has committed or it's in fault or not and will give a sentence.

 

Todd: So does this Court have a lot of power, like for example can other smaller countries or can any country just ignore it, ignore the ruling?

 

Katia: Well yes they can ignore it but it will not be seen very good by other countries. It's not an obligation. You cannot force the country to do something but it's very rare for this to happen. Maybe it takes a long time for a state to pay the victim or to do something regarding the decision but usually they do obey, most of the time.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

bring a case to court

 

before bringing a case into the court, we had to work with the Commission.

 

Lawyers bring a case into court to seek a ruling. Notice the following:

 

We had to file the paperwork before bringing the case to court.

Bringing a case to court takes a lot of preparation.

ignore

 

Can any country just ignore it, ignore the ruling?

 

When we ignore something , that means we pay no attention to it. Notice the following:

 

Just ignore him and he'll go away.

We can't ignore the deadline.

entity²

 

It's two different entities, the Commission and the Court.

 

Here, entities are two separate parts of the legal system. Notice the following:

 

The tax department is a separate entity from finance.

It's a different entity entirely³.

sentence

 

The Court give a sentence.

 

A sentence is the penalty or punishment we receive if we are found guilty of wrongdoing in a court of law. Notice the following:

 

He received a long sentence.

The two year jail sentence was shorter than expected.

obligation

 

It's not an obligation. You cannot force the country to do something.

 

An obligation is something we must do. Notice the following:

 

The company had an obligation to pay taxes.

He was under no obligation to continue with the current supplier.

1 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

2 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。

3 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。