780 articles
Forum non conveniens
Forum non conveniens (inconvenient forum) is a common law doctrine letting a court with jurisdiction decline it in favor of a more appropriate forum. Originating in Scotland (M'Morine v Cowie, 1845), codified in England by Spiliada and in the US by Gulf Oil v Gilbert and Piper v Reyno.
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-351) is a U.S. federal child welfare law amending Social Security Act titles IV-B and IV-E for kinship guardianship aid, care to 21, tribal access, and adoption incentives.
Freehold (law)
Freehold (law): an estate in land of free tenure and indeterminate duration, also called liberum tenementum; covers fee simple, fee tail, and life estates; in England and Wales one of two legal estates under the Law of Property Act 1925.
French contract law
French contract law is the body of rules governing contracts in France, set out in the Code civil and substantially rewritten by a 2016 reform, the first since 1804.
French land laws in Algeria
The French land laws in Algeria, chiefly the sénatus-consulte of 1863 and the Warnier Law of 1873, dismantled collective land tenure and opened Algerian land to European settlers.
Furtum
Furtum (theft) is the Roman delict of dishonest handling of another's movable property for gain, with species furtum usus and furtum possessionis, penalized by the actio furti at double or quadruple value, foundation of modern theft law.
Gavelkind
Gavelkind, the custom of Kent (also found in small areas elsewhere), was an Anglo-Saxon-origin land tenure dividing a father's land equally among all sons, with privileges such as felony protection, half dower, and free alienation, abolished by the Administration of Estates Act 1925.
Georgia Tann
Georgia Tann, head of the Tennessee Children's Home Society's Memphis branch, ran a black-market adoption scheme from 1924 to 1950, selling over 5,000 children, many abducted, before a 1950 investigation.
German contract law
German contract law, governed mainly by the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB) of 1900, covers contract formation, remedies for breach, good faith, and standard terms; reformed 1 January 2002, no consideration doctrine.
Get (גט) (divorce document)
A get, also spelled Ghet (גט), is the formal bill of divorce in Jewish law, written by a scribe and delivered by the husband to his wife.
Get enforcement analogues for Islamic divorce
Get enforcement analogs are civil statutory laws that pressure a spouse to remove religious barriers to the other's remarriage, developed around the Jewish get and applicable to the Islamic talaq.
Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College
Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College is a 2017 Ohio defamation case in which the bakery won libel, interference, and emotional-distress verdicts over Oberlin College; final payment was $36.59 million in 2022.
Gillick competence
Gillick competence is English and Welsh common law allowing children under 16 to consent to medical treatment if they show sufficient understanding, from Gillick v West Norfolk [1985] UKHL 7, related to the Fraser guidelines.
Goff & Jones
Goff & Jones is a leading English treatise on restitution and unjust enrichment, first published in 1966 by Robert Goff and Gareth Jones as The Law of Restitution.
Good Samaritan law
Good Samaritan law: statutes protecting voluntary emergency rescuers from civil liability, distinct from duty-to-rescue laws. All US states have some form; Germany, France, Italy, Spain impose duties to rescue.
Gordon v Goertz
Gordon v Goertz, [1996] 2 SCR 27, is the leading Supreme Court of Canada relocation case: material change threshold, then a fresh best-interests inquiry with no custodial-parent presumption, later modified by statute and Barendregt.
Governing law of arbitration agreements
The governing law of an arbitration agreement is the national law that decides its validity, formation, and waiver, distinct from both the main contract and the law of the seat.
Grandparent visitation in the United States
Grandparent visitation in the United States is the body of state law under which a grandparent may ask a court to order contact with a child over a parent's objection.
Grant of probate
A grant of probate is an official document issued by a probate registry giving an executor the legal right to deal with a deceased person's estate.
Grant v Australian Knitting Mills
Grant v Australian Knitting Mills [1935] UKPC 2, also 54 CLR 49, a Privy Council case: Adelaide doctor Grant won £2,450 for sulphite-caused dermatitis from underwear, holding the retailer liable under the Sale of Goods Act and the manufacturer liable in tort under Donoghue v Stevenson.
Grant v Torstar Corp
Grant v Torstar Corp, 2009 SCC 61, [2009] 3 SCR 640, is the Supreme Court of Canada decision establishing the defamation defence of responsible communication on a matter of public interest, requiring public-interest subject matter and diligent verification, broader than the UK Reynolds defence.
Grazing leases on state and communal land in Namibia and South Africa
Grazing leases on state and communal land in Namibia and South Africa are the leasehold and permit regimes authorizing livestock grazing on state-trust and communal land.
Great Lakes Insurance SE v. Raiders Retreat Realty Co., LLC
Great Lakes Insurance SE v. Raiders Retreat Realty Co., LLC, 601 U.S. 65 (2024): unanimous Supreme Court admiralty ruling holding choice-of-law provisions in maritime contracts presumptively enforceable, with narrow exceptions, reversing the Third Circuit.
Great Māhele
The Great Māhele was the 1848 division of the lands of the Kingdom of Hawaii under King Kamehameha III, which introduced private property and opened land to foreign ownership.
Green v Lord Somerleyton
Green v Lord Somerleyton [2003] EWCA Civ 198 is an English Court of Appeal case on flooding nuisance and drainage easements, holding the Leakey duty covers naturally flowing water but was discharged, and confirming an implied easement.
Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc.
Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc., 59 Cal. 2d 57 (1963), California Supreme Court decision establishing strict products liability in tort for defective goods, independent of warranty contracts, notice rules, and privity.
Gretna Green
Gretna Green, a Scottish border village in Dumfriesshire, became famous for runaway marriages after England's 1753 Marriage Act; Scots law allowed marriage by declaration before witnesses, performed famously over the blacksmith's anvil until 1939.
Grey divorce
Grey (gray) divorce, also called silver splitting, is divorce among adults aged 50 and older. Its US rate doubled 1990-2010 (Brown & Lin); by 2019, 36% of US divorces involved people 50+.
Gross negligence
Gross negligence is an extreme, willful, wanton, and reckless departure from the ordinary standard of care in tort law, sitting between ordinary negligence and intentional wrongdoing, carrying higher damages, voided waivers, and, in English law, gross negligence manslaughter.
Ground rent
Ground rent: recurring leasehold payment to a freeholder for the land, unrelated to services; in England and Wales capped at a peppercorn for new leases by the 2022 Act, with a £250 cap proposed for existing leases.