1. Geographical position of the UK (nature, coasts, relief, climate etc)
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is situated on the British Isles. The British Isles
are separated from Europe by the English Channel. The British Isles are washed by the North Sea in the East
and the Atlantic Ocean in the West.
The territory of Great Britain is divided into four parts: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
England is the richest, the most populated part in the country. There are mountains in the north and in the
west of England, but all the rest of the territory is a plain.
Scotland is a land of mountains. Its highest peak is Ben Nevis.
The British Isles have many rivers. The longest of them is the Severn. It flows into the Irish Sea. The
Thames is over 200 miles long. London, the capital of Great Britain, stands on it.
Geographical position of Great Britain is rather good as the country lies on the crossways of the sea routes
from Europe to other parts of the world.
2. History of the United Kingdom
The first Britons (people who live in the United Kingdom) were the Picts, who arrived about 10,000 years
ago. In the eighth century B.C., the Celts arrived from Europe and pushed the Picts north into Scotland. In
A.D. 43, the Romans invaded and ruled for nearly 400 years. They built roads, bathhouses, sewers, and
large villas.
By the sixth century A.D., German peoples known as Angles, Jutes, and Saxons were moving into Britain.
The Angles gave their name to England, and English people became known as Anglo-Saxons. From the
900s to the 1400s, England was ruled by Viking, Danish, and Norman invaders.
In 1485 the Welsh noble Henry Tudor claimed the English crown and became Henry VII, the first of five
Tudor monarchs. Several important lines of kings and queens followed.
By the 1800s, Britain was one of the most powerful nations in the world. Trade generated immense
wealth, and the country built a huge overseas empire. But the early 20th century was a time of setbacks for
Britain. Drained by World War I and II, Britain could no longer afford its empire, and most of its colonies
became independent.
3. Monarchy
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch shares power with a
constitutionally organized government. The reigning king or queen is the country’s head of state. All
political power rests with the prime minister (the head of government) and the cabinet, and the monarch
must act on their advice. The current monarch and head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended the
throne in 1952.
4. Political system of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchy. Britain does not
have a written constitution. Parliament is the most important authority in Britain.
The monarch serves formally as head of state. The present sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II (the second).
The House of Commons consists of Members of Parliament. General elections are held every five years. Ail
citizens aged 18 have the right to vote.
There are few political parties in Britain. The main ones are: the Conservative Party, the Labour Party.
Each political party puts up one candidate for each constituency. The one who wins the most votes is MP for
that area.
The party which wins the most seats in Parliament forms the Government; its leader becomes the Prime
Minister.
The functions of the House of Commons are legislation and scrutiny of government activities. The House of
Commons is presided over by the Speaker.
The House of Lords is presided by the Lord Chancellor. The House of Lords has no real power. It's in the
House of Commons that new bills are introduced and debated.
Parliament is responsible for British national policy. Local governments are responsible for organizing of
education, police and many others.
Government
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) is a constitutional monarchy. It
means that the country has the Queen or the King and a democratically elected government.
The monarchy is the oldest institution of government in the United Kingdom and goes back to the
11-th century. The UK’s monarchy is the oldest of all modern constitutional monarchies (others exist
in countries including Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain and Monaco).
The Queen is the Head of the State and the Prime Minister appointed by the monarch is the political
leader of the United Kingdom and the head of the Government.
As a constitutional monarch, the Queen does not rule the country, but fulfils a number of important
ceremonial and symbolic roles. She is the Head of the Armed Forces, the Head of the
Commonwealth and also holds the title ‘Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church
of England’. The Queen also performs a range of important duties, such as summoning and
dissolving Parliament and giving royal assent to legislation passed by the UK Parliament. The Queen
appoints the prime minister and other government ministers, judges, officers in the armed forces,
governors, diplomats, and bishops.
The state has three main functions: executive, legislative and judicial.
The legislative power in the UK is exercised by Parliament which consists of the Monarch, the
House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The main functions of Parliament are to examine
debate and approve laws, to finance through taxation the work of the government, and to check the
work of the government. The three parts of Parliament – the House of Commons, the House of Lords
and the Monarch – meet together only on occasions of symbolic significance such as the State
Opening of Parliament.
The House of Commons is an elected body. General elections are usually held every 5 years in the
UK. During an election, the UK is divided into 646 constituencies, which each vote one Member of
Parliament (MP) into the House of Commons. When an MP dies, resigns or is made a member of the
House of Lords a by-election takes place.
The chief officer of the House of Commons is the Speaker, elected by MPs to preside over the
House. The person elected to be the Speaker has the privilege to sit in the House of Lords when he
or she steps down. MPs are paid salaries. They are directly responsible to the electorate. On
weekends, MPs are expected to return to their constituencies to be available for the people from the
district they represent.
T [he House of Lords has 736 members. The Lord Chancellor presides over the House of Lords.
The House of Lords is composed of the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal.
The Lords Spiritual can now number no more than 26 (there are 5 Archbishops and 21 longestserving bishops).
The Lords Temporal are hereditary or life peers or peeresses. Legislation since 1999 has limited the
number of hereditary peers to 92 and the most peers in the House of Lords are life peers (whose
peerages are not inheritable).
The House of Lords debates legislation, and has some power to amend or reject bills. However, the
power of the Lords to reject a bill passed by the House of Commons is severely restricted by the
Parliament Acts.
Law and criminal justice
The study of law distinguishes between public law and private law, but in legal practice in the UK the
distinction between civil law and criminal law is more important to practising lawyers. Public law relates to
the state and is concerned with laws which govern processes in local and national government conflicts
between an individual and the state. Private law is concerned with the relationships between individuals and
corporations, and includes family law, contract law, property law, etc.
Criminal law deals with certain forms of conduct for which the state reserves punishment, for example
murder or theft. The state prosecutes the offender. Civil law concerns relationships between private persons,
their rights and duties. It also deals with the conduct which may give rise to a claim by a legal person for
compensation or injunction. When it comes to prosecution under the laws of the country it’s common to
speak about criminal offence but civil wrongs
Criminal and civil proceedings are usually very different. In a criminal proceeding a prosecutor prosecutes a
defendant. If the verdict is “guilty”, the defendant is convicted. He will have a criminal record for the crime
and will be punished by one of a variety of punishments ranging from life imprisonment to a fine, which is
paid to a court. If the defendant is found “not guilty”, he is acquitted and allowed to leave court without
punishment.
In civil cases a claimant sues a defendant or brings a claim against him. The proceeding may result in
judgement for the claimant, which means that the defendant is found liable and the judge may order the
defendant to pay damages.
The duty to prove a case is called the burden of proof. In criminal cases the burden of proof falls on the
prosecution. In other words it’s the duty of the prosecution to prove guilt, the defendant doesn’t have to
prove his innocence. This principle is called the presumption of innocence, which means that every person
charged with a criminal offence is considered to be innocent until proved guilty.
The degree of proof which makes the court sure that the person is guilty is called the standard of proof. The
standard of proof is higher in a criminal action than in a civil one since the penalties are stricter. In a
criminal case a prosecution must prove the guilt of a criminal “beyond reasonable doubt”, which means that
the prosecution must make the court sure that the defendant committed the crime. If the court is not sure or
has a reason for the doubt, it must acquit the defendant.
In a civil action the burden of proof is on the claimant. He is required to prove his case “on a balance of
probabilities”, i.e. to show that his case is more probable than not. But he doesn’t have to make the court
sure about it; it’s enough to show that the defendant was probably guilty.
One and the same offence may sometimes result in both kinds of prosecution, civil and criminal. For
example, the driver who injured a passer-by will not only face criminal penalties imposed by a criminal
court but may have to pay compensation for injuries ordered by a civil court.