July 2000

5 July 2000

Dear Mr Lee

Herewith we are informing you that on 7-8 September, 2000 an International Conference "New Prospects of scientific and technological and production cooperation of Russia with foreign states" is to be held in Nizhny Novgorod.

To participate in the forthcoming Conference we are glad to invite a representative from your Ministry and two persons representing business circles.

The working languages of the Conference are Russian, German and English. For further information please contact Ms Golovina (tel.: 456 899 01)

Looking forward for your prompt reply, I remain

Sincerely yours,

Vladimir Yugin

Minister

Task III. Conversation on the topic of your thesis

аспирантура (канд. экз.)

Экзаменационный билет (на 2 листах) по дисциплине

английский язык

(специальность: гражданское право; предпринимательское право;
семейное право; мчп)

Task I. Translate from English into Russian in writing using a dictionary. Your time is 45 minutes

Main categories

One important distinction made in all these countries is between private - or civil - law and public law. Civil law concerns disputes among citizens within a country, and public law concerns disputes between citizens and the state, or between one state and another. The main categories of English civil law are:

Contracts: binding agreements between people (or companies);

Torts: wrongs committed by one individual against another individual's person, property or reputation;

Trusts: arrangements whereby a person administers property for another person's benefit rather than his own Land Law;

Probate: arrangements for dealing with property after the owner's death;

Family Law.

The main categories of public law are:

Crimes: wrongs which, even when committed against an individual are considered to harm the well-being of society in general;

Constitutional Law: regulation of how the law itself operates and of the relation between private citizen and government;

International Law: regulation of relations between governments and also between private citizens of one country and those of another.

In codified systems there are codes that correspond to these categories, for example, France's Code Civil and Code Penal. Justinian's Roman codes covered such areas of law as contracts, property, inheritance, torts, the family, unjust enrichment, the law of persons, and legal remedies, but said little about criminal law. Consequently, most Continental criminal codes are entirely modern inventions.

The standards of proof are higher in a criminal action than in a civil one since the loser risks not only financial penalties but also being sent to prison (or, in some countries, executed). In English law the prosecution must prove the guilt of a criminal "beyond reasonable doubt"; but the plaintiff in a civil action is required to prove his case «on the balance of probabilities." Thus, in a case a crime cannot be proven if the person or persons judging it doubt the guilt of the suspect and have a reason (not just a feeling or intuition) for this doubt. But in a civil case, the court will weigh all the evidence and decide what is most probable.

In Anglo-American law, the party bringing a criminal action (that is, in most cases, the state) is called the prosecution, but the party bringing a civil action is the plaintiff. In both kinds of action the other party is known as the defendant. A criminal case against a person called Ms Sanchez would be described as «The People vs. (= versus, or against) Sanchez" in the United States and «R. (Regina, that is, the Queen) vs. Sanchez» in England. But a civil action between Ms Sanchez and a Mr Smith would be «Sanchez vs. Smith" if it was started by Sanchez, and "Smith vs. Sanchez» if it was started by Mr Smith.

Task II. Translate the letter from English into Russian without a dictionary. Your time is 5-7 minutes

Sadovaya'Kudrinskaya str.

Russian Federation

Dear Minister

Thank you for your interest to meet representatives of the Brandenburg State Government, especially Prime Minister Dr. Manfred Stoipe, during your stay in the Federal Republic of Germany from April 25"' to April 26"' 2000.

It is my pleasure to invite you to the state of Brandenburg. A copy of your request has been.mailed to the office of the Prime Minister for coordinating purposes.

Sincerely yours

Dr. Wolfgang FьrniЯ

Task III. Conversation on the topic of your thesis

аспирантура (канд. экз.)

Экзаменационный билет (на 2 листах) по дисциплине

английский язык

(специальность: гражданское право; предпринимательское право;
семейное право; мчп)

Task I. Translate from English into Russian in writing using a dictionary. Your time is 45 minutes

That law is an effect of lawyers' imagination is nowhere clearer than in the devel­opment of international law from the isolated diplomatic practices of the nineteenth century into a legal order sometime early in the twentieth. Professional jurists took it upon themselves to explain international affairs in the image of the domestic state, governed by the Rule of Law. For that purpose, they interpreted diplomatic treaties as legislation, developed a wide and elastic doctrine of customary law, and described the state as a system of competences, allocated to the state by a legal order. A culture of professional international law was created through the setting up of the first international associations of jurists, doctrinal periodicals as well as the publication of many-volumed presenta­tions of state practice in the form of systematic legal treatises.

It was not a simple task to conceive of diplomatic correspondence and a few arbi­trations as manifestations of an autonomous legal order. In 1935 a sceptic still de­scribed the situation in the following terms:

There is in fact, whatever the names used in the books, no system of international law -and still less, of course, a code. What is to be found in the treatises is simply a collection of rules which, when looked at closely, appear to have been thrown together, or to have been accumulated, almost al haphazard.

Two strategies seemed possible. One could either take whatever materials - treaties and cases - one could find that bore some resemblance to domestic law and explain the inevitable gaps in the system as a result of the 'primitive' character of international law. Otherwise one could try to expand the law's scope by arguing, as Grotius had done, from Roman and domestic law, general principles and ideas about a common morality. Although in fact both avenues were followed, the former seemed to realize better the statism and the objective of the 'scientification' of law that had been the great aim of nineteenth century jurisprudence.

Martti Koskenniemi Lauterpacht: The Victorian Tradition in International Law European Journal of International Law. Vol. 8 No 2, 1997.

Task II. Translate the letter from English into Russian without a dictionary. Your time is 5-7 minutes

July 18,2000

Dear Mr. Petrov

I would like to inform you that I left my position as Minister of International Trade and Industry on July 4.

Mr. Hiranuma has been appointed as my successor. I hope that you will accord him the same goodwill and assistance you have granted me.

Please accept my best wishes. Respectfully yours,

Takashi Fukaya

Ministry of International Trade and Industry

Task III. Conversation on the topic of your thesis

аспирантура (канд. экз.)

Экзаменационный билет (на 2 листах) по дисциплине

английский язык

(специальность: гражданское право; предпринимательское право;
семейное право; мчп)

Task I. Translate from English into Russian in writing using a dictionary. Your time is 45 minutes

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises ("SME") play an important role in the Canadian economy, 'providing significant employment, innovation, variety and competition in many different sectors. This role is recognized in section 1.1 of the Competition Act ("Act"), which states that the general aim of the Act is to maintain and encourage competition in Canada in order to ensure, among other things, that small and medium-sized enterprises have an equitable opportunity to participate in the Canadian economy. Although this is a stated goal of Canadian competition law, there are no specific exclusions or special rules applicable to such enterprises. However, because of their relatively small size, SME's may fall below the anticompetitive thresholds necessary to trigger the application of many of the provisions of the Act including the general prohibition against conspiracies in section 45. A further consideration is whether enforcement action against a particular agreement between SME's is justified according to the Competition Bureau's enforcement priorities and case screening criteria.

For the purposes of competition analysis generally, it is not useful to define what is or is not an SME on the sole basis of absolute size criteria (such as annual revenue, personnel or output) below which a firm might be considered an SME. Instead, competition analysis is concerned with the ability of a firm or group of firms to act independently of the rest of the competitors in a particular market. This type of comparative analysis of the relative market power of firms in a particular market make absolute criteria a poor benchmark for determining whether a firm is an SME in a particular market. For instance, a firm that might be considered to be large in terms of revenue, personnel and output in a particular industry and market might be considered to be an SME in comparison to the much larger firms that exist in a different market. Definition of the relevant product and geographic markets is key since the larger the relevant market, i.e. the greater the number of firms producing substitutable products and geographic area in the market, the less likely that a firm will have the market power necessary to cause substantial anticompetitive effects. Markets are typically defined in terms of the smallest group of products and geographic area in which participants could impose a significant and non-transitory price increase (generally a price, increase of five per cent is considered significant and a one year period to be non-transitory). In assessing the relevant markets in conspiracy cases, it is important to note that the parties to the alleged agreement may have already exercised market power and thus any observed willingness by customers to switch or new competitors to enter may overstate their competitive significance.

_________________________________

SME Small and Medium Enterprises

Series Roundtables on Competition Policy. OECD, Paris, 1997

Task II. Translate the letter from English into Russian without a dictionary. Your time is 5-7 minutes

Dear Mrs. Fonaryova:

The 37^th World Advertising Congress, "London 2000", will be held in London from 6 June through 9 June. This biennial Congress, is very the traditional gathering place of top professionals.

We believe that your participation in this event of world importance will be important.

Considering your great contribution to the development of the Russian advertising business, we are confident that your contacts with leaders of the advertising industry from around the world will have a positive effect on the further development of the advertising market in Russia.

Sincerely,

Task III. Conversation on the topic of your thesis

аспирантура (канд. экз.)

Экзаменационный билет (на 2 листах) по дисциплине

английский язык

(специальность: гражданское право; предпринимательское право;
семейное право; мчп)

Task I. Translate from English into Russian in writing using a dictionary. Your time is 45 minutes

Special treatment of SME under competition law - exemption from general ban on cartels

The survival of SME may be threatened inter alia by processes of structural change, intensifying competition based on efficiency and anticompetitive practices or abusive conduct by large firms, whether competitors, suppliers or buyers. Co-operation agreements among SME are often assessed from the perspective that SME have no chance of survival in competition with large firms if the latter use economies of scale. Where competitive disadvantages result from relatively small size only, attempts are often made to compensate for those disadvantages by other means. Close co-operation among SME is then considered a means of ensuring survival and offsetting structural disadvantages.

While the group of SME is heterogeneous, the following broad statements can be made -although there may be a few examples to the contrary -: One of the purely size-induced disadvantages of SME vis-a-vis large firms is poor access to the capital market. Owing to their relatively small size, SME have little or no access to certain sources of finance. Since SME are often single-product firms, the possibilities of risk-spreading and compensatory pricing are as a rule very limited, which raises their sensitivity to cyclical and structural fluctuations. Owing to their manufacturing conditions, which are marked as a rule by small lot and batch sizes, SME can only take limited advantage of cost savings in the production process. As SME purchase smaller volumes than large firms, their terms and conditions tend to be less favourable. In addition, they are often less likely to attract highly qualified staff. As a result of the above disadvantages, even their international competitiveness is generally thought to be inferior to that of large firms.

By contrast, it is considered the SME's specific advantage over large firms that, being closer to the market, they are more ready to take risks and able to more quickly respond and make adjustments. Time-consuming processes of co-ordination and decision-making can often be dispensed with so that SME can quickly respond to market processes. Direct contact with buyers and greater closeness to the market often allows them to better meet specific customer needs. SME moreover often are firms with a high degree of specialisation.

________________________________

SME Small and Medium Enterprises

Series Roundtables on Competition Policy. OECD, Paris, 1997

Task II. Translate the letter from English into Russian without a dictionary. Your time is 5-7 minutes

To: Mr Takashi KOEZUKA

Deputy Secretary General

Re: 10^th Anniversary of Antimonopoly Bodies.