780 articles
Intestacy
Intestacy is the condition of dying without a valid will, or with a will that leaves part of the estate undisposed, so statutory intestate succession rules rank heirs, favoring spouses and children, and differ between slab and fractional systems.
Intimidation
Intimidation (tort): a common law wrong where a defendant threatens an unlawful act, coerces another, and causes the claimant loss. Established by Rookes v Barnard (1964); two-party form survived OBG v Allan; distinct from criminal intimidation statutes.
Invercargill City Council v Hamlin
Invercargill City Council v Hamlin (Privy Council, 1996; [1996] 1 NZLR 513) upheld council liability for economic loss from negligently approved defective foundations and adopted a discoverability limitation rule, permitting New Zealand to diverge from Murphy v Brentwood.
Invitation to treat
Invitation to treat: a contract-law communication (shop displays, advertisements, auctions, tenders, online listings) that invites offers but cannot itself be accepted to form a binding contract, per Fisher v Bell, Boots, Partridge v Crittenden, with Carlill as the unilateral-offer exception.
Involuntary commitment
Involuntary commitment, also called civil commitment, is the legal process of placing a person in psychiatric treatment without consent, based on dangerousness or grave disability criteria, with mixed evidence on outcomes.
Irving v Penguin Books Ltd
Irving v Penguin Books Ltd: 2000 English libel case in which David Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin over Denying the Holocaust; Gray J found the defence of justification proved and Irving lost, later going bankrupt over costs.
Islamic estate administration
Islamic estate administration is the process of settling a deceased Muslim's estate, paying funeral costs, debts, and bequests before distributing the remainder to heirs under faraid.
Islamic inheritance jurisprudence
Islamic inheritance jurisprudence (ʿilm al-farāʾiḍ, ilm al-mawarith) is the Islamic law branch fixing heirs' shares from Qur'an and Sunnah, covering quota heirs, agnates, hajb, awl, radd, Sunni-Shia systems, modern codes, and gender justice debates.
Israeli contract law
Israeli contract law is the codified body of private law governing the formation, performance, and breach of contracts in Israel, centered on the Contracts (General Part) Law 1973 and the 1970 Remedies Law.
Japanese contract law
Japanese contract law governs the formation, performance, and enforcement of contracts in Japan through the Civil Code of 1896, which requires no consideration and no writing.
Japanese labour law
Japanese labour law governs employment contracts, working conditions, and collective labour relations in Japan. Built on the 1947 Labor Standards Act, Trade Union Law, and Labor Contract Act, it features invalidation of abusive dismissals and 2020 equal-treatment rules for agency workers.
Japanese patent law
Japanese patent law (特許法, Tokkyoho) governs patents in Japan under the 1959 Patent Act, administered by the JPO. First-to-file, 20-year term, examination on request within three years, opposition within six months.
Jedediah Purdy
Jedediah S. Purdy (Jedediah Britton-Purdy), American legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin Distinguished Professor of Law at Duke Law after Columbia; author of After Nature, This Land Is Our Land, Two Cheers for Politics; writes on environmental, property, constitutional law.
Jeff Younger–Anne Georgulas custody battle
Jeff Younger–Anne Georgulas custody battle: Dallas County, Texas family case (case DF-15-09887) over twin boys and one child's gender identity, spanning a 2016 annulment, 2019 joint-custody ruling, 2022 Texas Supreme Court mandamus denial, and later California litigation.
Joanna Howe
Joanna Howe is an Australian Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide, Rhodes Scholar, and consultant with Harmers Workplace Lawyers, known for temporary labour migration research, government migration advisory appointments, and anti-abortion campaigning.
John C. P. Goldberg
John C. P. Goldberg, American legal scholar, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; with Benjamin Zipursky co-developed civil recourse theory and co-authored Recognizing Wrongs (2020), a leading account of tort law as wrongs and redress.
Joint and several liability
Joint and several liability: rule that each of multiple defendants is liable for the entire judgment, also called solidary obligation; contrasted with several (proportionate) liability and subject to contribution and tort-reform limits.
Joint custody
Joint custody is a form of child custody in which separated or divorced parents share both decision-making authority and responsibility for their child, covering legal and physical custody.
Julius Lassen
Julius Severin Vilhelm Lassen (1847–1923) was a Danish jurist who held the law chair at the University of Copenhagen from 1881 to 1918 and shaped Nordic obligations law.
Jure uxoris
Jure uxoris, Latin for "by right of his wife", is the legal principle by which a husband held his wife's titles, lands, or throne in her right; a common law freehold estate later abolished by Women's Property Acts.
Jurisdiction in divorce with a foreign element
Jurisdiction in divorce with a foreign element is the set of rules deciding which court may hear a divorce with cross-border connections, such as different nationalities or residences.
Katko v. Briney
Katko v. Briney is a 1971 Iowa Supreme Court decision holding that a landowner may not use a spring gun or other deadly device to protect unoccupied property.
Kay's Tutor v Ayrshire & Arran Health Board
Kay's Tutor v Ayrshire & Arran Health Board, also cited as Kay v Ayrshire and Arran Health Board, is a 1987 House of Lords Scots delict case: an admitted 300,000-unit intrathecal penicillin overdose in a meningitis child was held not proven to have caused his deafness, and judges may not adopt untested causation theories.
Kesha v. Dr. Luke
Kesha v. Dr. Luke (Gottwald v. Sebert): 2014-2023 New York defamation and contract litigation between singer Kesha and producer Lukasz Gottwald, ending in the June 13, 2023 Court of Appeals limited-public-figure ruling and a June 22, 2023 settlement.
Ketubah
Ketubah (כְּתוּבָּה), the Jewish marriage contract: an Aramaic legal document witnessed at weddings, guaranteeing the wife support and a settlement secured by a lien on the husband's property; codified in the first century CE, earliest surviving example circa 440 BCE.
Khul'
Khul' (خلع, khula) is an Islamic divorce in which a wife separates from her husband by paying compensation, based on Quran 2:229 and the case of Thabit ibn Qays's wife; schools differ on classification and consent.
Koseki (戸籍)
Koseki (戸籍), Japan's family register: a household-based public record certifying Japanese nationality and kinship from birth to death, administered by municipalities, with 1871 origins, 2008 access restrictions, and 2025 furigana recording.
Laches (equity)
Laches (equity), also called estoppel by laches, is an equitable defense barring relief when a claimant's unreasonable delay prejudices the opposing party; distinct from statutes of limitations, narrowed by Petrella (2014) in U.S. copyright law.
Laesio enormis
Laesio enormis, a Roman-law contract doctrine from Diocletian's constitutions of 285 and 293 AD and Justinian's Codex C.4.44.2, lets a seller rescind a land sale priced below half its true value; it survives in the French Code civil and Austrian ABGB.
Laird
Laird, Scots word for a Scottish landed estate owner, equivalent to the English squire; from Old English hlaford. A courtesy description, not nobility; souvenir plot sales confer no legal title.