Ch.14 Comparative Law Law In Other Cultures Full Test Bank

CHAPTER 14

COMPARATIVE LAW: LAW IN OTHER CULTURES

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Societies have no written language and thus are collectively referred to as _____________ societies.

a. uneducated

b. informal

c. uninhabited

d. preliterate

2. Which of the following preliterate societies are small groups (typically between 50 and 100 members)?

a. tribes

b. gangs

c. clans

d. bands

3. Which of the following preliterate societies are larger groups (anywhere from a few hundred to many thousands)?

a. bands

b. gangs

c. tribes

d. clans

4. Which of the following is was one of the most common crimes among the Inuit when they lived in nomadic bands?

a. theft

b. adultery

c. rape

d. assault

5. Lacking formal means of redress for offended parties, the Inuit relied on:

a. government

b. peers

c. self-redress

d. corporations

6. One alternate tactic that avoided bloodshed and vendettas was a unique kind of mechanism of self-redress among the Inuits called the:

a. sing-off

b. voice duel

c. song duel

d. voice-off

7. The ridicule of song duels used by the Inuits was seen as a way to restore _______________ fractured by the wrongdoing.

a. egos

b. lives

c. communities

d. social relationships

8. What punishment used in band societies signal social and possibly physical death in the harsh and hostile environments often inhabited by bands?

a. cutting off hands

b. ostracism

c. caning

d. whipping

9. What is a small subunit of a tribe based on kinship?

a. gang

b. band

c. clan

d. flock

10. In preliterate tribes, murders (and assaults) were usually settled by _______________ payable not by the offender himself but by his clan.

a. life

b. property

c. sheep

d. fines

11. Which of the following Huron crimes were crimes against the tribe?

a. treason

b. murder

c. assault

d. theft

12. How many main traditions of law exist in the world today?

a. two

b. four

c. six

d. eight

13. Only countries either colonized or defeated in war by Britain or the United States has imported the ____________ law.

a. common

b. socialist

c. Islamic

d. civil

14. Common law is distinguished from other systems of law in which of the following ways?

a. its respect for precedent

b. its use of grand and petit juries

c. its extensive use of judicial review

d. all of the above

15. Common law's respect for _______________ flows from its origin as case law, which reflects the accumulated wisdom of generations of judicial decisions.

a. judicial review

b. the rule of law

c. statutory law

d. precedent

16. In regards to precedent, what means that courts at the same level maintain consistency in their interpretations of the law?

a. horizontal dimensions

b. group dimensions

c. solitary dimensions

d. vertical dimensions

17. Indictment by grand jury and trial by petit jury are cherished procedures under which type of law?

a. socialist law

b. common law

c. civil law

d. Islamic law

18. In different common law countries, the scope of judicial review is limited to various:

a. cases

b. degrees

c. situations

d. individuals

19. What type of law is used by almost half of the world's nations?

a. Islamic law

b. civil law

c. common law

d. socialist law

20. In regards to its development, what type of law probably owes its greatest debt to ancient Rome and nineteenth-century France and Germany?

a. common law

b. socialist law

c. Islamic law

d. civil law

21. The first historical example of a written code of laws can be traced back to the edicts of:

a. the Twelve Tables

b. the Napoleonic Code

c. King Hammurabi's Code

d. the Justinian Code

22. Modern civil law owes most to which code, known as the Code Civil des Français, published in 1804?

a. Twelve Tables

b. Napoleonic Code

c. King Hammurabi's Code

d. Justinian Code

23. The basic features of civil law are almost _______________ of the features of common law.

a. mirror images

b. exactly the same

c. reminiscent

d. mirror opposites

24. Which country's political ideology and social traditions emphasizes communitarian, and even paternalistic, values?

a. China

b. France

c. United States

d. Saudi Arabia

25. Writing the codes or principles of conduct down ____________ them in a civil law system.

a. creates

b. reveals

c. promotes

d. authenticates

26. What flexibility is not possible in civil law systems because, theoretically, the codes laid down in civil law are complete the day they are enacted and are not subject to judicial review?

a. stare decisis

b. precedent

c. judicial review

d. rule of law

27. What is a system of extensive investigation, interviews, and interrogations carried out in civil law countries to ensure that an innocent person is not subjected to trial?

a. inquisitorial

b. adversarial

c. procedural

d. substantive

28. It is suggested that civil law procedure is more likely to arrive at the _______________ and serve the purpose of justice than is common law procedure.

a. truth

b. guilt

c. innocence

d. evidence

29. In the French system, a body that monitors detentions of suspects and the decisions of the investigating judge is known as the:

a. inquisition chamber

b. sentencing chamber

c. trial chamber

d. investigating chamber

30. In which country is a trial more of a public review of case facts and a consideration of mitigating and aggravating circumstances for the purposes of sentencing than a forum for determining guilt or innocence?

a. United States

b. France

c. China

d. Saudi Arabia

31. Juries in France consist of three _______________ and nine lay persons.

a. professional judges

b. defense attorneys

c. government workers

d. prosecutors

32. In France, _____________ are called juge des libertes et de la detention, or judge of freedom and detention.

a. the first professional judges on a jury

b. trial judges

c. the second professional judges on a jury

d. the third professional judges on a jury

33. In a French jury trial, who is allowed to question witnesses and the accused?

a. jurors

b. judges

c. laypersons

d. all of the above

34. Some civil law countries tend to view the practice of _______________ of legislation as inherently anti-democratic and a violation of the principle of separation of powers.

a. judicial review

b. judicial independence

c. jury nullification

d. jury review

35. Civil law _______________ courts in France and in some other countries can rule on matters of both law and fact.

a. trial

b. civil

c. criminal

d. appellate

36. Socialist law emphasizes _______________ values over individual rights and is a low-tolerance, crime control model rather than a due process model.

a. communal

b. justice

c. contemporary

d. substantive

37. Since the demise of the USSR, what is the largest and most important country with a socialist legal system?

a. China

b. United States

c. France

d. Saudi Arabia

38. During the rule of which former Chinese leader did the Chinese legal system borrow heavily from the Soviet legal codes?

a. Qin Shi Huang

b. Mao Zedong

c. Gao Zu

d. Ming Di

39. The Chinese system has both inquisitorial and adversarial aspects, but its emphasis is squarely on the_______________ process.

a. inquisitorial

b. review

c. justice

d. adversarial

40. In a court case, Chinese defendants have the right which of the following?

a. defend themselves in court

b. hire an attorney

c. entrust their defense to a relative or lay person

d. all of the above

41. In China, the evidence fabrication code specifically targets:

a. prosecutors

b. defense attorneys

c. offenders

d. witnesses

42. What organized work and neighborhood groups provide a long tradition of informal social control via sanctioning methods, of which every adult in China belongs to one or more of, and thus provide strong pressures toward conformity everywhere?

a. collegial mediation committees

b. standing mediation committee

c. prefecture mediation committees

d. people's mediation committees

43. Which country is the world's leader in the number of executions each year?

a. France

b. China

c. Saudi Arabia

d. United States

44. Which type of Chinese death sentence is carried out within seven days of the imposition of the penalty?

a. delayed

b. impending

c. suspended

d. immediate

45. Which Chinese court operates at the provincial level and is analogous to an American state supreme court?

a. Supreme People's Court

b. Basic People's Court

c. Intermediate People's Court

d. Higher People's Court

46. In China, the prosecutor's right to appeal a "not guilty" verdict reveals the lack of which American right?

a. double jeopardy

b. counsel

c. due process

d. self-incrimination

47. Islamic countries vary in the level of their adherence to strict _______________ interpretations.

a. Bible

b. Qur'anic

c. Book of Mormon

d. Commandment

48. According to the text, in which country does the Qu'ran function as a constitution, laying out general principles that must be interpreted and applied to a variety of specific cases?

a. United States

b. France

c. Saudi Arabia

d. China

49. What emerges from the Qu'ran, case law, and scholarly commentaries, and means "the path to follow"?

a. Hadith

b. shari'a

c. Nizam

d. qadi

50. Islamic law characterizes offenses by the types of:

a. victims they impact

b. punishments they engender

c. harm that is caused

d. offenses that are violated

51. Which Islamic law crimes and the penalties attached to them are considered God prescribed, and no judge or legislative body can alter their penalty?

a. ta'zir

b. quesas

c. hadith

d. hudud

52. What type of Islamic crimes means "equal harm" or "retaliation" and includes crimes committed against individuals rather than against God?

a. hadith

b. quesas

c. hudud

d. ta'azir

53. Penalties for quesas crimes can be negotiated or even forgiven by the victim or the family of the victim in exchange for "blood money" known as:

a. hayya

b. diyya

c. hadiya

d. quesaya

54. Under Islamic law, sodomy falls under which type of crimes?

a. hudud

b. quesas

c. hadith

d. ta'azir

55. In regards to oath swearing under Islamic law, there is no punishment for _______________ because those who commit this act will be punished in the next life.

a. murder

b. perjury

c. rape

d. slander

56. A useful way of making comparisons among the four legal traditions is the degree to which _______________ is present?

a. precedent

b. adversity

c. the rule of law

d. harm

57. How many elements of the rule of law does France unquestionably exhibit?

a. first element

b. first two elements

c. all three elements

d. none of the above

58. Which type of law is different from the other three traditions in that it fails to meet any of the criteria for operating under the rule of law?

a. Islamic law

b. socialist law

c. civil law

d. common law

59. Which country opposes judicial review because the law is the word of God and thus cannot be amended by any mere mortal?

a. United States

b. Saudi Arabia

c. China

d. France

60. The rule of law implies that the:

a. people serve the government

b. government serves the law

c. law serves the government

d. government serves the people

TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS

1. Many preliterate societies have homicide rates many times greater than that of the United States.
2. The United States is the world’s most populous common law country.
3. The adversarial system is so called because it evolved from trial by combat.
4. Most legal systems in the world respect the idea of judicial review.
5. Most countries in the world have a common law system.
6. Civil law systems have usually developed after revolutionary upheavals.
7. The French system of criminal justice may be characterized as a crime control model.
8. A French criminal investigation takes place under the presumption of guilt.
9. Both judges and jurors in French trials are allowed to question witnesses and defendants.
10. Ideologically, socialist law considers itself to be a temporary anachronism devoted to its own demise.
11. Socialist law is primarily adversarial.
12. China’s legal system was developed over two thousand years ago by the Emperor Ch’in.
13. The Chinese legal system does not operate on the assumption of innocence at any stage of criminal processing.
14. The Chinese legal system allows defendants to debate with judges, prosecutors, and witnesses at their trials.
15. Islamic law is secular law.
16. There are higher standards for proving murder than for proving fornication under Islamic law.
17. Hadd crimes and/or their penalties can be eliminated or altered only by joint agreement between the king of Saudi Arabia and the highest Islamic religious authorities.
18. The common law is the only legal system that fully abides by the rule of law.
19. Socialist law follows the rule of law least among all legal traditions.
20. The nature of the modern world probably makes the convergence of legal systems inevitable.
21. The song duel has to do with conduct regulation among the Huron.
22. The civil law is generally considered neater and more systematic than common law.
23. In civil law countries, new codes are viewed as replacing rather than supplementing old codes.
24. Precedent is never used to help resolve cases in civil law.
25. The inquisitorial system assumes guilt rather than innocence as in a common law system.
26. The authorities are more likely to arrive at the truth (the guilty found guilty and the innocent freed) in a civil law system such as the French system than in a common law system.
27. Only judges, not jurors, get a vote in a French criminal trial.
28. Chinese defense lawyers rarely argue that their clients are innocent.
29. The death penalty is rarely used in China because its system values confession and rehabilitation.
30. Saudi Arabia has both a religious and a secular constitution.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. According to the textbook, why is it important to explore the legal systems of other countries and cultures?
2. Discuss why informal social control so important for preliterate bands and tribes.
3. Choose one of the countries/cultures discussed in the chapter and explain its legal system.
4. Why is social law the least amenable to the rule of law?
5. Discuss the evidence provided by the text for the convergence of the various legal systems.