Law and justice touch on fairness, rules, and how societies handle right and wrong, topics students tend to have strong opinions about. Good for sparking debate and practicing language around obligation, opinion, and hypotheticals.
Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.
Beginner (A1-A2)
- Do you know any laws in your country that everyone must follow? What is one law you think is very important?
- Have you ever seen a police officer stop someone on the street or pull over a car? What happened?
- Have you ever locked your home, car, or bike to keep it safe? What do you do to protect your things?
- Have you ever been to a courthouse or a police station? What was it like?
- What are three rules you had to follow when you were a child? (At school, at home, outside, etc.)
- Do you feel safe in your city or town? What about at night?
- Have you ever had something stolen from you? What happened?
- Have you ever called the police or an emergency number? What happened?
- Do you know anyone who is a police officer, a lawyer, or a judge? What is their job like?
- Do you like watching crime shows or police movies? What is your favorite one?
- Are there any things you are not old enough or too young to do in your country? (Driving, voting, buying certain things, etc.) What age do you have to be? Is that a good age for the restriction?
Elementary (A2)
- What are three things that are illegal in your country? Are any of them surprising to people from other countries?
- What do police officers wear in your country? How is it different from what police wear in movies?
- What happens if you drive too fast in your country? Do you know anyone who has gotten a speeding ticket?
- Are there any areas in your city or town where people say there is more crime? What do people think causes it?
- Have you ever seen someone do something illegal in public (like jaywalking or littering)? What did you do?
- What is a law in your country that tourists are often surprised by? Why does it surprise them?
- What rules at your school or workplace do people break the most? Why do they break them?
- Do you think most people follow traffic rules in your country (like stopping at red lights and wearing seatbelts)? Why do some people ignore them?
- If you found a wallet with a lot of money on the street, what would you do? Why?
- Have you ever gotten in trouble for breaking a rule, even though you did not know the rule existed? What happened?
Intermediate (B1)
- What is the most serious crime someone can commit? What makes it so serious?
- Have you ever received a fine (for speeding, parking, or something else)? What happened, and did you think it was fair?
- What laws do you wish were stricter in your country? Why?
- What is the most common crime in your city or town? Why do you think it happens so often?
- Do you think security cameras help prevent crime? Why or why not?
- Should people who commit minor crimes (like shoplifting small items) go to prison? Why or why not?
- If you were on a jury and you were not sure if the person was guilty, what would you do? What would make you decide?
- Do you think people who break the law because they are very poor should be treated differently from people who break the law for other reasons? Why or why not?
- Do you think police should be allowed to search someone’s home or phone without a court order in an emergency? Why or why not?
- Do you think it is ever okay to break the law to do the right thing? Give me some examples.
- Should people be allowed to own guns? Why or why not?
- If you could change one law in your country, which one would you change and why?
- Should teenagers who commit serious crimes be punished the same way as adults? Why or why not?
- How much do you trust the justice system in your country? What would make it better?
Upper-Intermediate (B2)
- Do you think the legal system in your country treats men and women equally? How so?
- How does growing up in a wealthy neighborhood versus a poor one affect someone’s chances of getting into trouble with the law? What can be done to reduce this gap?
- Many countries have very different punishments for the same crime. What do you think is the best approach: strict punishments or more focus on rehabilitation? What are the good and bad sides of each?
- How has technology, such as surveillance cameras, facial recognition, and phone tracking, changed the relationship between law enforcement and privacy? What do you think about those changes?
- Compare how the legal system handles white-collar crime (like fraud and tax evasion) versus street crime (like theft). Why do you think the treatment is often so different?
- How do the media and social media affect whether a person can get a fair trial? What can be done to reduce that influence?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of having jury trials versus having a judge decide alone? Which do you think produces more fair results?
- In some countries, hiring a lawyer is so expensive that many people cannot afford proper legal defense. How does this affect the idea of equal justice? What can be done about it?
- What are the arguments for and against the death penalty? Which side do you find more convincing?
- How do police body cameras affect the relationship between police officers and the public? What do you think about those changes?
- In many countries, people can sue each other for almost anything. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a system like this?
- When a country transitions from a dictatorship to a democracy, should the new government punish former leaders for their crimes, or forgive them to move forward? What are the risks of each path?
Advanced (C1)
- Why is it so difficult to separate the idea of ‘justice’ from the idea of ‘revenge’? Where does one end and the other begin?
- When governments pass laws that most people support, but those laws violate the rights of a small minority, is that justice or majority rule? How do we draw the line?
- How do politics and power shape which behaviors get criminalized and which get ignored, and who ends up bearing the consequences?
- When evidence is gathered illegally by the police, many legal systems say it cannot be used in court, even if it proves someone is guilty. How does this kind of rule expose the deeper tension between finding truth and protecting rights?
- Many things that were once legal are now crimes, like child labor or drunk driving, and some things that were once illegal are now widely accepted. Why does what a society considers ‘wrong’ keep changing, and does the law usually lead those changes or follow them?
- International companies often operate in countries with very different legal systems. When a company follows the law in one country but that same action would be illegal in another, who should be held responsible and by which country’s standards?
- Whistleblowers expose illegal or unethical actions by governments and corporations, but they often face prison or exile for it. When does breaking the law to reveal the truth become an act of justice rather than a crime?
- Many people support harsh punishments for criminals until someone they care about gets in trouble with the law. Why do our ideas about justice change so dramatically depending on how personally connected we are to the situation?
- Restorative justice programs bring criminals face to face with their victims instead of sending them to prison. What does it say about our society that we have traditionally chosen punishment over healing, and could this approach actually work on a larger scale?
- When a wealthy or famous person gets a lighter punishment than an ordinary person would for the same crime, people are outraged, but it keeps happening. Why does money continue to buy better outcomes in legal systems that are supposed to treat everyone equally?
- People regularly break laws they actually agree with, speeding, jaywalking, minor tax tricks, without feeling like criminals. What does this gap between the laws people support and the laws people actually follow tell us about how justice really works in everyday life?