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Schuyler, Philip John

(Encyclopedia)Schuyler, Philip John skīˈlər [key], 1733–1804, American Revolutionary general, b. Albany, N.Y. He was a member of one of the wealthiest colonial New York families. After serving in the French an...

St. Clair, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)St. Clair, Arthur, 1734–1818, American general, b. Thurso, Scotland. He left the Univ. of Edinburgh to become (1757) an ensign in the British army and served in the French and Indian War at Louisbur...

bagpipe

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Scottish bagpipe bagpipe, musical instrument whose ancient origin was probably in Mesopotamia from which it was carried east and west by Celtic migrations. It was used in ancient Greece and Ro...

Dwight, Theodore William

(Encyclopedia)Dwight, Theodore William, 1822–92, American lawyer, b. Catskill, N.Y., grad. Hamilton College, 1840. He studied at Yale law school and was admitted to the bar in 1845. He was professor of law and la...

Holdsworth, Sir William Searle

(Encyclopedia)Holdsworth, Sir William Searle, 1871–1944, British legal historian. He was (1903–8) professor of constitutional law at University College, London. After 1922 he was Vinerian professor of English l...

Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques zhäN zhäk bo͝orlämäkēˈ [key], 1694–1748, Swiss jurist. His chief works are Principes du droit naturel [principles of natural law] (1747) and Principes du droit politi...

Langdell, Christopher Columbus

(Encyclopedia)Langdell, Christopher Columbus lăngˈdəl [key], 1826–1906, American teacher of law, b. New Boston, N.H. He practiced in New York City from 1854 to 1870, when he was appointed Dane professor of law...

compurgation

(Encyclopedia)compurgation kŏmˌpərgāˈshən [key], in medieval law, a complete defense. A defendant could establish his innocence or nonliability by taking an oath and by getting a required number of persons to...

Kagan, Elena

(Encyclopedia)Kagan, Elena, 1960–, U.S. educator, government official, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (2010–), b. New York City, grad. Princeton (A.B., 1981), Oxford (M.Phil., 1983), Harvard La...

statute

(Encyclopedia)statute, in law, a formal, written enactment by the authorized powers of a state. The term is usually not applied to a written constitution but is restricted to the enactments of a legislature. Statut...