TRANSLATION

Ex.3.11. Below you see a fragment from “The concept of law” by H.L.A. Hart, in which he reflects on the origin of rules. Make a literary translation in a written form paying attention to grammar structures. Use a dictionary if necessary.

 

Rules may originate in different ways and may have very different relationships to the conduct with which they are concerned. Some rules are made by legislation; others are not. Some rules are mandatory in the sense that they require people to behave in certain ways ( e.g. people should pay taxes, whether they wish or not); other rules such as those prescribing the procedures, formalities, and conditions for the making of marriages, wills, or contracts indicate what people should do to give effect to the wishes they have.

In England there is a rule that a man must not wear a hat in church or that one must stand up when “God Save the Queen” is played. Most people generally do these things. Most people also may regularly drink tea at breakfast or go weekly to the cinema, and yet there is no rule in England that everyone “must” or “should” go to the cinema each week. But there is a rule that a man must bare his head in church. What then is the difference between habitual behaviour in a social group and the existence of a rule of which the words “must”, “should” and “ought to” are often a sign? Even skilled lawyers have felt that, though they know the law, there is much about law and its relations to other things that they cannot explain and do not fully understand.

(from “The concept of law” by H.L.A Hart)