Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Dworkin, Ronald Myles

(Encyclopedia)Dworkin, Ronald Myles, 1931–2013, American legal philosopher. b. Worcester, Mass. A professor at Yale (1962–75), Oxford (1969–98), New York Univ. (1975–2013), and University College London (19...

Mongols

(Encyclopedia)Mongols mŏngˈgəlz, –gōlz [key], Asian people, numbering about 6 million and distributed mainly in the Republic of Mongolia, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China, and Kalmykia and the B...

Iran-contra affair

(Encyclopedia)Iran-contra affair, in U.S. history, secret arrangement in the 1980s to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran. The Iran-contra affair was the produc...

virtual currency

(Encyclopedia)virtual currency, a means of payment that is electronically created and stored, more specifically an unregulated electronic medium of exchange that operates like a currency but is created and controll...

Wilde, Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Wilde, Oscar (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde), 1854–1900, Irish author and wit, b. Dublin. He is most famous for his sophisticated, brilliantly witty plays, which were the first since the come...

Pepper, George Wharton

(Encyclopedia)Pepper, George Wharton, 1867–1961, American jurist, b. Philadelphia. He practiced law in Philadelphia and was (1893–1910) professor of law at the Univ. of Pennsylvania. Pepper was appointed in 192...

independent counsel

(Encyclopedia)independent counsel, in U.S. law, a judicially appointed investigator of charges of misdeeds by high government officials. Originally termed “special prosecutor,” the position was first created by...

Cleveland State University

(Encyclopedia)Cleveland State University, at Cleveland, Ohio; coeducational; founded 1964, incorporating Fenn College (est. 1923). The Cleveland-Marshall School of law was incorporated in 1969. The university prese...

Posner, Richard Allen

(Encyclopedia)Posner, Richard Allen pōzˈnər [key], 1939–, American jurist and author, b. New York City, grad. Yale (A.B., 1959), Harvard Law School (LL.B., 1962). He clerked for Supreme Court Justice William B...

American Bar Association

(Encyclopedia)American Bar Association (ABA), voluntary organization of lawyers admitted to the bar of any state. Founded (1878) largely through the efforts of the Connecticut Bar Association, it is devoted to impr...