Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Erskine, John, 1695–1768, Scottish jurist and professor

(Encyclopedia)Erskine, John, 1695–1768, Scottish jurist and professor (1737–65) of Scots law in the Univ. of Edinburgh. He is best known for his authoritative Institutes of the Law of Scotland (1754). His Princ...

Wigmore, John Henry

(Encyclopedia)Wigmore, John Henry, 1863–1943, American legal educator, b. San Francisco, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1883; M.A. and LL.B., 1887). He taught (1889–92) Anglo-American law at Keio-Gijuku Univ., Tokyo. Aft...

Bluntschli, Johann Kaspar

(Encyclopedia)Bluntschli, Johann Kaspar yōˈhän käsˈpär blo͝onchˈlē [key], 1808–81, Swiss jurist and political scientist. Trained at the Univ. of Berlin, he taught law at Zürich, Munich, and Heidelberg. ...

Bell, Derrick Albert, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Derrick Albert, Jr., 1930–2011, American lawyer, legal scholar, and educator, b. Pittsburgh, Pa., grad. Duquesne Univ. (A.B., 1952), Univ. of Pittsburgh Law School (LL.B., 1957). Known for his...

Corpus Juris Civilis

(Encyclopedia)Corpus Juris Civilis kôrˈpəs jo͝oˈrĭs sĭvīˈlĭs [key], most comprehensive code of Roman law and the basic document of all modern civil law. Compiled by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I,...

Irnerius

(Encyclopedia)Irnerius ûrˌnērˈēəs [key], c.1055–c.1130, Italian jurist and founder of the law school (c.1088) at Bologna, which became the center of legal scholarship in Europe. Though little is known of hi...

Hart, H. L. A.

(Encyclopedia)Hart, H. L. A. (Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart), 1907–92, British legal philosopher. A lawyer and trained philosopher—he was a legal positivist—Hart subjected legal concepts to scrutiny in such wo...

Bynkershoek, Cornelius van

(Encyclopedia)Bynkershoek, Cornelius van kôrnāˈlĭs vän bĭngˈkərs-ho͞ok [key], 1673–1743, Dutch writer on international law. His De dominio maris [on the rule of the seas] (1702, tr. 1923) is a classic on...

organized crime

(Encyclopedia)organized crime, criminal activities organized and coordinated on a national scale, often with international connections. The American tradition of daring desperadoes like Jesse James and John Dilling...

alkali metals

(Encyclopedia)alkali metals, metals found in Group 1 of the periodic table. Compared to other metals they are soft and have low melting points and densities. Alkali metals are powerful reducing agents and form univ...