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Deuteronomy

(Encyclopedia)Deuteronomy do͞otərŏnˈəmē [key], book of the Bible, literally meaning “second law,” last of the five books (the Pentateuch or Torah) ascribed by tradition to Moses. Deuteronomy purports to b...

confession

(Encyclopedia)confession, in law, the formal admission of criminal guilt, usually obtained in the course of examination by the police or prosecutor or at trial. For a confession to be admissible as evidence against...

contraband

(Encyclopedia)contraband, in international law, goods necessary or useful in the prosecution of war that a belligerent may lawfully seize from a neutral who is attempting to deliver them to the enemy. The term is s...

entail

(Encyclopedia)entail, in law, restriction of inheritance to a limited class of descendants for at least several generations. The object of entail is to preserve large estates in land from the disintegration that is...

extradition

(Encyclopedia)extradition ĕkstrədĭshˈən [key], delivery of a person, suspected or convicted of a crime, by the state where he has taken refuge to the state that asserts jurisdiction over him. Its purpose is to...

Fortas, Abe

(Encyclopedia)Fortas, Abe fôrˈtəs [key], 1910–82, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1965–69), b. Memphis, Tenn. After receiving his law degree from Yale in 1933, he taught there (1933–37) and al...

axiom

(Encyclopedia)axiom, in mathematics and logic, general statement accepted without proof as the basis for logically deducing other statements (theorems). Examples of axioms used widely in mathematics are those relat...

lese majesty

(Encyclopedia)lese majesty or leze majesty both: lēz măˈjĭstē [key] [Fr. lèse majesté, Lat. laesae maiestatis (crimen)=(crime of) violating majesty], offense against the dignity of the sovereign of a state o...

Lagarde, Christine

(Encyclopedia)Lagarde, Christine (Christine Madeleine Odette Lallouette Lagarde) krĭstēnˈ lägärdˈ [key], 1956–, French lawyer and government official, the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund...

Wilson, James, American jurist

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, James, 1742–98, American jurist, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. near St. Andrews, Scotland. He studied at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and, after emigrating to Pe...