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coercion

(Encyclopedia)coercion, in law, the unlawful act of compelling a person to do, or to abstain from doing, something by depriving him of the exercise of his free will, particularly by use or threat of physical or mor...

Recceswinth

(Encyclopedia)Recceswinth rĕkˈəswĭnth [key], d. 672, Visigothic king of Spain (653–72). He was the son of Chindaswinth, who in 649 admitted him to joint rule. Recceswinth succeeded to the throne without elect...

O'Connor, Sandra Day

(Encyclopedia)O'Connor, Sandra Day, 1930–2023, U.S. lawyer and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1981–2006), b. El Paso, Tex. Graduating from Stanford ...

verdict

(Encyclopedia)verdict, in law, official decision of a jury respecting questions of fact that the judge has laid before it. In the United States, verdicts must be unanimous in federal courts; majority verdicts are c...

Locke, Gary

(Encyclopedia)Locke, Gary, 1950–, American politician and government official, b. Seattle. The son and grandson of Chinese immigrants, he graduated from Yale (B.A., 1972) and Boston Univ. Law School (J.D., 1975)....

Mayer, Julius Robert von

(Encyclopedia)Mayer, Julius Robert von, 1814–78, German physician and physicist, studied medicine at Tübingen, Munich, and Paris. From a consideration of the generation of animal heat, he was led to determine th...

Hebrew University

(Encyclopedia)Hebrew University of Jerusalem, at Mt. Scopus, Givat Ram, Ein Karem, and Rehovot, Israel; coeducational. First proposed in 1882, formally opened 1925. It is the world's largest Jewish university and i...

antinomianism

(Encyclopedia)antinomianism ăntĭnōˈmēənĭzəm [key] [Gr.,=against the law], the belief that Christians are not bound by the moral law, particularly that of the Old Testament. The idea was strong among the Gno...

Dinkins, David Norman

(Encyclopedia)Dinkins, David Norman, 1927–2020, African-American political leader, b. Trenton, N.J. After graduating (1956) from Brooklyn Law School, he went into private law practice. Active in Democratic politi...

Cujas, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Cujas or Cujacius, Jacques zhäk küzhäsˈ, kyo͞ojāˈshəs [key], 1522–90, French jurist and scholar of Roman law. He taught at Toulouse, Bourges, and elsewhere. Unlike previous scholars, he was ...