Festival in British Essay Example for Free

Festival in British Essay INTRODUCTION Festival is defined as a time of celebration marked by special observances. Every festival tells a message pertaining our customs, traditional values, mythology, culture and historical events. Festival usually brings happiness and glee. Thereby, it strengthens the bond of relationship and friendships. Britain is a land known of its British cultures. It inevitably celebrates a variety of festivals throughout the year. For example, British people celebrate New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter Day, Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas. Each festival is celebrated with enthusiasm by British people. Everyone enjoy them especially children and family usually prepares for the festival well in advance. METHODOLOGY Questionnaire is a set of questions used for gathering information from individuals. It is well known as the easiest and simplest way in collecting information. That is why this method had been used in this project. Questions been set as the first step of creating a questionnaire. Then, few kinds of questions had beenchosen out of many types of questions. In this project, list more than one, ranking question, yes/no and multiple choices questions had been selected. After that 40 interviewees were interviewed at the street in Sheffield. The questions are mainly about how people in British celebrate festivals. RESULTS The first question is a yes/no question where interviewees where asked either they like or dislike festivals. Within 40 interviewees that been interviewed, 95% of them like festival and only 5% of them dislike festival. Interviewees had been asked how many festivals they celebrate in a year in question 2. 19 of the interviewees celebrated 10 or more festivals in a year. There are only 5 of them celebrate 1-2 festivals in a year while the remaining of interviewees celebrate 3-4 festivals.Question 3 is tick more than one question where interviewees were asked to tick festivals that they celebrated in a year. The answer choices included New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween day, Bonfire night and Christmas. 35 interviewees celebrate Christmas which are slightly more than New Year. Only 17 interviewees celebrate Valentine’s Day which is the fewest festivals that been celebrated by interviewees. In addition, question 4 is a ranking question.where interviewees were required to rank the festival they like the most. According to the pie chart above, it clearly showed that interviewees liked Christmas the most. However interviewees who like liked Christmas are only slightly more than New Year. Nearly one third of the interviewees dislike Valentine’s Day than other festivals.Besides, in question 5 there are more people selected spending time with friends and family and party with friends as the way to spend their days during a festival. Only minority of them said that they go for a vacation during a festival. In question 6, there are more considerably more interviewees thinks that festivals such as Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Bonfire Night should have free day than those who thinks that those festivals should not have free days. In question 7 when interviewees were asked do they know the origin or history of the following festivals: (i) Valentine’s Day (ii) Easter (iii) Halloween (iv) Bonfire Night (v) Christmas There are far more interviewees knows the origin or history of Christmas than the others festivals. Most of the interviewees do not know the origin of Easter compares to other festivals. Only five of the interviewees said they knew the origin and history of Easter. In the last question, interviewees had been asked which festival that they likely to spent the most on foods, gifts and etc, where 29 of them mentioned that they spent on Christmas the most while most interviewees voted that they spent on Easter lesser than other festivals. CONCLUSION In conclusion, British people love celebrating festivals. According to the questionnaire that been made, it is clearly showed that they love Christmas the most. This is because interviewees spent most on Christmas and most of them knew the history and origin of Christmas. From my point of view, British people love Christmas because of the long history and the tradition of Christmas that been rooted in United Kingdom for a long time.

Cohabitation and its Effect on Marital Stability in the US Essay

Cohabitation and its Effect on Marital Stability in the US Unmarried heterosexual cohabitation has increased sharply in the recent years in the United States. It has in fact become so prevalent that the majority of marriages and remarriages now begin as cohabiting relationships, and most young men and women cohabit at some point in their lives. It has become quite clear that understanding and incorporating cohabitation into sociological analyses and thinking, is crucial for evaluating family patterns, people’s lifestyles, children’s wellbeing and social changes more broadly. This essay presents some common explanation for cohabitation’s dramatic rise and identifies some analytic questions as to how cohabitation is increasingly a major barrier in the marital stability in the United States. Cohabitation, over the last two decades has gone from being a relatively uncommon social phenomenon to a commonplace one and has achieved this prominence quite quickly. A few sets of numbers convey both the change and its rapidity. The percentage of marriages preceded by cohabitation rose from about 10% for those marrying between 1965 and 1974 to over 50% for those marrying between 1990 and 1994 (Bumpass and Lu 1999, Bumpass & Sweet 1989); the percentage is even higher for remarriages. Secondly, the percentage of women in their late 30s who report having cohabited at least once rose from 30% in 1987 to 48% in 1995. Given a mere eight year tome window, this is a striking increase. Finally, the proportion of all first unions (including both marriages and cohabitation) that begin as cohabitations rose from 46% for unions formed between 1980 and 1984 to almost 60% for those formed between 1990 and 1994 (Bumpass and Lu 1999). Various aspe... ... stepfamilies: implications of cohabitation and nonmarital childbearing. Demography 32:425 36 Bumpass LL, Sweet JA. 1989. National estimates of cohabitation. Demography 26:615 25 Bumpass LL, Sweet JA, Cherlin A. 1991. The role of cohabitation in declining rates of marriage. Demography 53:913 27 Goode WJ. 1963. World Revolution and Family Patterns. New York: Free Manning WD, Smock PJ. 1997. Children's living arrangements in unmarried-mother families. J. Fam. Issues 18:526 44 Nock SL. 1995. A comparison of marriages and cohabiting relationships. J. Fam. Issues 16:53 76 Rindfuss RR, VandenHeuvel A. 1990. Cohabitation: a precursor to marriage or an alternative to being single? Pop. Dev. Rev. 16:703 26 Thornton A. 1991. Influence of the marital history of parents on the marital and cohabitation experiences of children. Am. J. Sociol. 96:868 94

Labor and Employment Laws Essay

Human resource departments are responsible for effectively, legally, fairly, and consistently attempting to maximize an organization’s return on its human capital investment while minimizing financial risk. This is why labor laws and Civil Acts are placed in the work place and other felicities to insure the well fare of others are without risk and effective(WGU). Analysis of Situation A In every situation all bases need to be covered and all information gathered before any request is finalized. It is necessary to establish whether the employee qualified for the leave and whether the terms as stipulated under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) were actually met. The Act requires that for one to benefit from the leave he or she must have worked with the employer for more than 12 months. Employee A had worked for 2 years and it can be deduced that he had successfully completed at least 1250 hours at the work place. The rationale of the law is to make it possible for one to accomplish his professional obligations and personal ones without having to choose one at the expense of another. The reason for the leave must be for the care of a family member who has a serious health condition or one’s own health condition. Employee A asked for the leave to take care of his wife who had prematurely given birth to twins. In fact, this is one of the reasons listed in the FMLA for this type of leave. It is not difficult to discern that this is a serious medical condition which requires continuous care of the patient. Therefore, employee A should not be subjected to any victimization upon his request of leave. Focusing on the duration of the leave, an employee is entitled to up to 12 weeks of this type of leave, so long as the right paperwork is provided. Employee A had been out for 11 weeks, hence, was still within the statutory period of 12 weeks. Since the issue of paper work is not a concern under this situation, I have confidence that he supplied all the required documentation. The employee must be reinstated to the same position he held before the leave, so long as he  still is able to perform the essential function of the job. Employee A was still able to perform the functions of the job. Hence, he was reinstated to his former position. On the issue of pay during the leave, the Act does not require employers to pay the employees during the leave but any arrangement to the contrary must, however, be respected. Since, there was no agreement to this effect with the employer; the manager is under no obligation to pay the withheld salary for the 11 weeks. The new manager in withholding the salary did not breach any law and this decision cannot be properly said to be discriminatory laws, in this case FMLA (Lau & Lisa, 2013). Analysis of Situation B General laws of Human Rights are captured in the U.S. constitution. The Civil Rights are contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The specifics of employment law are contained in various federal statutes that address specific issues in employment law. The employment law to be considered in the current situation is the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA). The brief statement of the facts regarding employee B is that he was 68 years of age and had served Company X for 42 years and was assessed to be above average on his performance. He was allegedly not promoted because of his age with the company preferring a younger employee of 32 years who received a performance review of adequate. First of all, Company X is bound by the Act, since it had 75 employees which is way above the minimum requirement of 20 employees. As such, Company X in hiring, promoting or firing its employees must pay due regard to the requirements of the Act. Secondly, employee B is currently 68 years old, meaning that he is protected by the Act which states that it protects workers above the age of 40. If the assessment of both employees revealed that the older one was still performing better than the younger one then it would be hard to find a genuine reason for the promotion of the younger employee. Additionally, the situation does not fall under the exception of Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) stipulated in the Act. Under this exception, a younger employee can be preferred to an older one if it is objectively established and to some extent obvious that the job cannot be effectively performed by the older employee. In view of the foregoing, I rest upon the conclusion  that there was discrimination on the basis of age in selection of the younger employee for the promotion at the expense of employee B. The fact that the employee was not asked to sign an ADEA waiver or any document to the effect confirms my position. Age was the ‘but for’ reason for lack of promotion of the employee (Lau & Lisa, 2013). Analysis of Situation C The only purpose that Company X gave for failure to hire employee C was that such a move would have been costly to the company. Therefore, I would assume that the employee was qualified for the job as the applicable statue (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) applies to qualified but disabled persons. Consequently, it cannot be doubted that employee C was qualified for the job. Secondly, the Act gives considerations of whether the disabled person can perform the essentials of the job. Under this test it would be understandable when a company fails to hire a blind person as a driver. This is impossible since such a person cannot perform the essential functions of the job. Accordingly, the Act also permits the failure to hire a disabled person if it will require reasonable accommodation in order to perform the job. The essential function of the job would be incompatible with employee C’s situation and as such the level of accommodation required was too high. Company X’s decision not to hire employee C does not amount to discrimination but an instance of genuine distinction. The adjustments needed to accommodate employee C would be too much and, therefore, the decision not to hire him is not discriminatory against him. As a result, employees are more protected since they are the fragile parties in the employment contract bargain. This is because employees can be exploited by ill-intentioned employers. As such employment laws together with other human rights laws take care of employees. The laws also protect the interests of employers by lining the duration of certain leaves, qualifications for some benefits as discussed above and hiring of employees on the basis of merit and not any other considerations. (Lau & Lisa, 2013). Work Cited Page 1.Lau T.S. & Lisa J.A. (2013) The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business. New York: Flat World Knowledge Inc.

Scots Law in the UK and International Context - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2284 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Did you like this example? Scots Law in the UK and International Context Background The United Kingdom comprises three legal jurisdictions: England Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. While much of the body of law made by the UK Parliament in Westminster applies to all three legal jurisdictions, there are separate court systems in each jurisdiction and local laws made by national legislative bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In some areas, such as commercial law, the laws of the three jurisdictions have converged over time but in others (such as property and criminal law) they have retained their distinct characteristics. While England is a common law system, Scotland has a mixed legal system which combines elements of the civil and common law traditions. The civilian practice of codification has not been followed in Scotland but the influence of civilian principles is evident in many areas of the law and often forms part of judicial reasoning in case-law. However, in line with English law, Scots law generally follows the doctrine of precedent with the result that judges are bound by decisions of superior courts on the same issue. The role of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“equityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  in English law does not have a direct parallel in Scotland but Scottish courts do nevertheless refer to equitable principles when resolving cases where the law does not provide a clear solution. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Scots Law in the UK and International Context" essay for you Create order Constitutional Law In May 1707 the separate parliaments of Scotland and England became incorporated in the new Parliament of Great Britain which became the sole legislative authority of the new British state. In 1801, a further parliamentary union took place with Ireland leading to the creation of the United Kingdom Parliament. The latter union lasted until 1922, when the Irish Free State was founded and later became the Republic of Ireland, leaving Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom along with Scotland and England and Wales. The main consequence for Scots law of the 1707 Union was the loss of the capacity to legislate independently in Scotland. While Scotland sent and continues to send members of parliament to Westminster, relatively few Acts affected the development of Scots law, particularly in the century and a half following the Union of 1707. This left the Court of Session, the central civil court, considerable scope to develop the law. However, this was subject to the House of L ords which, from shortly after 1707, acted as an appellate court of last resort from all parts of Britain. Civil cases from Scotland were appealed to the House of Lords which formed a Judicial Committee to hear them. From 1876 the committee contained Scottish judges, as does its successor, the UK Supreme Court, which was established in 2009. This appellate activity is one reason why some important areas of Scots law have, since 1707, undergone considerable Anglicisation. This began in the eighteenth century as Scottish jurists and judges were influenced by English legal sources but, through both statutory development and the influence of the House of Lords, Scots law and English law in some important areas are now the same. Legislation applicable throughout the United Kingdom has created uniformity in areas such as taxation and important areas of commercial law, despite separate jurisdictions and systems of courts having been maintained. As a result of the jurisprudence of the co urts, areas of common law such as the law of contract and delict (tort) are now very similar in England and Scotland. In the Scotland Act 1998 the United Kingdom Parliament, following a referendum held in Scotland in 1997, created a new Scottish Parliament with devolved powers. A Scottish Executive was also established (now known officially as the Scottish Government). The Parliament opened in 1999 and it has the power to legislate in all areas except those which were reserved to Westminster under the 1998 Act. Such à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"reserved mattersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ include foreign affairs, defence, VAT and most areas of taxation, financial services and markets, consumer rights, data protection, social security, immigration, energy policy and the constitution. The Scottish Parliament sits in Edinburgh. Acts of the Scottish Parliament (ASPs) are distinct from the Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament. In particular, ASPs may be held to be invalid by the courts if they are incompati ble with human rights or infringe the powers set out under the Scotland Act 1998. International and EU Law The United Kingdom (UK) is a single multi-national state made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Whereas the UK is a sovereign state under public international law, Scotland à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" like England, Wales and Northern Ireland à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" is not. Thus, it is the UK à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" rather than Scotland à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" that becomes a party to international treaties and that is a member of international organizations like the United Nations, the EU or NATO. With regard to the implementation of international treaties into domestic law, it is important to note that the UK is a so-called à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“dualist stateà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ , meaning that a treaty ratified by the UK Government does not alter UK domestic law unless and until it is incorporated into national law by domestic legislation. For example, UK legislation makes express provision for the incorporation of the Convention against Torture as well as EU law. Until such implementing legisla tion is enacted, national courts have no power to enforce the rights and obligations laid out in an international treaty. The requirement of incorporating legislation raises the question of which Parliament has the competence to adopt such legislation: the Scottish Parliament or the UK Parliament. Although devolution within the UK means that the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government are empowered to take decisions on a range of domestic policy areas, foreign affairs and matters that affect international relations have been reserved for the UK Parliament in the Scotland Act 1998. Thus, international treaties are typically incorporated by UK law rather than separate Scottish law. A notable exception, however, is the International Criminal Court (Scotland) Act 2001 which was adopted because of Scotlandà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s different criminal law system and which must be considered jointly with the UK International Criminal Court Act 2001. The Scottish Government remains responsi ble for ensuring that it complies with the UKà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s international obligations in all areas devolved to it. Commercial Law While there has been a general convergence in commercial law as between the three jurisdictions in the UK, there remain material differences in some areas. In particular, since contract law and property law in Scotland remain distinct, it follows that the related aspects of commercial law also remain distinct in the absence of harmonisation. In harmonised areas of law (e.g. sale of goods, where the law in the UK has been harmonised by statute), it is common for courts in each jurisdiction to apply case-law from the other jurisdictions. Company Law. Company Law, which is statutory in its origin, is the same in all parts of the UK. Partnership Law has also been harmonised across the UK but there do remain some material differences (e.g. a partnership is a legal person only in Scotland). Financial Law. The private law of finance (e.g. contracts, funds, security interests) remains distinct as a result of the separate systems of contract and property law in Scotland. However, commercial practice means that similar techniques are often adopted in Scotland and England especially in the context of international transactions. The public law of finance (regulation) is uniform across the UK and much of it is now derived from EU law. Competition Law. This area of law is harmonised across the UK and is nowadays heavily influenced by EU law. Tax Law. Revenue and customs law is uniform across the UK. Property Law Property law is the area of Scots law where the influence of Roman law is the strongest. A strong emphasis is placed on the division between real rights (rights in items of property which are enforceable against the whole world) and personal rights (rights such as those under contract which are enforceable against particular persons). In contrast to common law systems, there is no distinction between Law and Equity and therefore no possibility of an equitable interest which is distinct from legal title. Historically, a greater emphasis has been placed on publicity in the transfer and constitution of property rights in Scotland. There is one important exception to this in the form of the Sale of Goods Act which applies across the UK and allows transfer from seller to buyer without delivery. Rights in security. Both of these factors have implications for the law of rights in security: there is no general recognition of equitable charges as a means of granting rights in security . a. Moveable property. Companies and certain other jurisitic persons can grant floating charges as a result of statutory intervention in the 20th century. Beyond the floating charge, the only right in security which can be granted over goods is pledge, which requires possession on the part of the creditor. There is no proper right in security for incorporeal property. The only way to use it as collateral (other than through the floating charge) is to assign the relevant right in security. This is an outright transfer combined with an obligation to retransfer when the debt is paid. Assignation in Scots law requires intimation to the debtor of the assigned debts. b. Land (known in Scotland as heritable property). Nearly all dealings with land are effected by registration on the Land Register and, until that happens, the grantee is vulnerable to the granterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s insolvency. The only right in security which can be granted over heritable property (besides the floatin g charge) is the standard security. It is created and transferred by registration of a deed in the Land Register. Trusts. Although Scots law does not recognise a division between Law and Equity, it does recognise the trust. As in common law systems, one of the most important consequences of the trust is that the trust assets are not vulnerable to the the trusteeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s personal creditors, particularly where the trustee is insolvent. In common law systems, this result is explained by reference to the beneficiariesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ equitable property interest in the trust property. In Scotland, beneficiaries have a mere personal right but trust assets are considered to be in a separate patrimony from the trusteeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s personal patrimony. This separation of patrimonies is said to explain the protection of the trust assets. Succession. Scots succession law reflects a mix of common law, civilian and native influences. Very few rules apply across the UK apa rt from those which regulate inheritance tax. Historically, the division between heritable property (land) and moveable property was very important. In contrast to English law, forced heirship rules entitle relatives to a fixed portion of the moveable property rather than giving discretion to the courts. The executor plays a central role in the administration of the deceasedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s estate. Property does not pass directly to those entitled to it under the will or rules on intestate succession. Instead, it passes to the executor, who is effectively a trustee for those who are entitled to the property and is obliged to pass the property on to them after the deceasedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s debts have been paid. Family Law Family law in Scotland is based largely on legislation which it does not share with any other UK jurisdiction. Accordingly, although it is possible to marry, become a parent and divorce in any part of the UK, the detailed rules governing those legal actions in Scotland will differ from the rules elsewhere. In some respects, as with the law on formation of marriage, the differences between the jurisdictions are fairly minor. However, some significant variations remain. Financial arrangements on divorce. In Scotland, division of assets on divorce is based on the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“clean breakà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  principle, where each spouse walks away from the relationship with a fair share of the matrimonial property. The aim is to avoid any continuing financial relationship between the parties, unlike elsewhere in the UK, where needs-based maintenance (alimony) payments are often ordered by the court. Cohabitation. Couples who live together without marrying in Scotland are subject to a legislative regime governing the property consequences of their relationships under the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006. Such legislation does not exist elsewhere in the UK. Childrenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s hearings. Scotlandà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s unique Childrenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Hearings system deals with all children who are in trouble or need help, including those who have committed a crime. The system is focused on welfare, with the child and relevant people in her life holding a round table discussion to decide what help or support the child requires. There is no equivalent elsewhere in the UK, where children would be dealt with through the courts or by the local authority. Criminal Law In contrast to almost every other jurisdiction worldwide, the United Kingdom has no criminal code. Many serious criminal offences (such as murder) are not actually defined in statute, but are a matter of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“common lawà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ , where the definitions have been developed by the courts over the years. The absence of a code means that the definitions of criminal offences are found spread across the common law and a wide variety of statutory materials. The structure of criminal law is largely identical across the UK. A Scottish criminal lawyer would have little difficulty in understanding English criminal law (and vice versa) but would be faced with a different set of rules from those they are familiar with in their home jurisdiction. Most serious criminal offences have different definitions à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" and sometimes different names à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" in Scotland and in the rest of the UK, although they cover a broadly similar range of conduct. However, w here criminal law is used as a regulatory tool (for example, where competition law creates criminal offences), this is often done in UK-wide statutes. Such statutes may create identical offences applying across the whole of the UK. University of Glasgow School of Law 2013