780 articles
Roman succession law
Roman succession law is the body of Roman private law determining who took a deceased person's estate, developing through Twelve Tables, praetorian, and Justinianic regimes whose concepts survive in modern succession law.
Rome I Regulation
The Rome I Regulation is an EU regulation that determines which national law governs contracts with an international element, replacing the 1980 Rome Convention from December 2009.
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), founded 1868, chartered 1881, is the professional body for chartered surveyors with 125,000 accredited professionals, Governing Council governance, Valuer Registration, Red Book standards, and the Levitt and Bichard reforms.
Royal Marriages Act 1772
Royal Marriages Act 1772 (12 Geo. 3 c. 11): British statute requiring descendants of George II to obtain the sovereign's consent before marrying, on pain of voidness; repealed 26 March 2015 by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.
Rule against perpetuities
The rule against perpetuities is a common law property doctrine voiding future interests that may vest more than 21 years after a life in being; England and Wales now applies a 125-year statutory period, and many US states use a 90-year rule or abolished it.
Rylands v Fletcher
Rylands v Fletcher, also cited as John Rylands and Jehu Horrocks v Thomas Fletcher, is the 1868 House of Lords case establishing strict liability for escapes of dangerous things accumulated on land in non-natural use.
Ryotwari
Ryotwari (ryotwar) was British India's land revenue system of direct settlement with individual cultivators (ryots), devised by Alexander Read and Thomas Munro in Madras from 1792 and extended to Bombay by Elphinstone, with plot-wise assessment revised every 20-30 years.
Safe-haven law
A safe-haven law, or Baby Moses law, is a US state statute letting parents anonymously surrender unharmed newborns without criminal liability, first passed in Texas in 1999.
Sale of Goods Act 1979
Sale of Goods Act 1979 (1979 c. 54), UK statute governing sale-of-goods contracts, consolidating the 1893 Act; implies terms on title, description, quality, and fitness; consumer provisions largely replaced by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Salic law
Salic law (Lex Salica, loi salique) is the early 6th-century legal code of the Salian Franks, attributed to Clovis, chiefly a tariff of monetary penalties, whose terra Salica land clause was later repurposed in France to bar women from royal succession.
Same-sex and LGBTQ+ adoption in Canada
Same-sex and LGBTQ+ adoption in Canada is the legal ability of LGBTQ+ individuals and couples to adopt children, permitted in every jurisdiction since roughly 2011, though agency-level barriers persist.
Same-sex marriage in British Columbia
Same-sex marriage in British Columbia: legalized July 8, 2003 by the BC Court of Appeal in Barbeau v. British Columbia after a 2001 BCSC dismissal; second Canadian province after Ontario, later confirmed by the 2005 Civil Marriage Act.
Same-sex marriage in Germany
Same-sex marriage in Germany (Ehe für alle), legal since 1 October 2017, replaced registered life partnerships (2001); passed 393-226 by the Bundestag on 30 June 2017; descent-law reform and adoption remain open issues.
Same-sex marriage in Scotland
Same-sex marriage in Scotland, legalized by the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 with first weddings on 31 December 2014, features an opt-in system for religious and belief bodies, Equality Act protections for objecting celebrants, and over 10,000 same-sex marriages since.
Same-sex marriage in South Africa
Same-sex marriage in South Africa: legalized via the Civil Union Act 17 of 2006 after the Constitutional Court's Fourie judgment (1 December 2005); first in Africa, with section 6 conscientious-objection opt-outs repealed in 2020.
Same-sex marriage in Thailand
Same-sex marriage in Thailand: legalized by the Marriage Equality Act (Civil and Commercial Code Amendment No. 24 B.E. 2567), effective 23 January 2025; first in Southeast Asia, third in Asia after Taiwan and Nepal.
Same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom
Same-sex marriage in the UK, also called equal marriage, is legal UK-wide: England and Wales 2014 (Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013), Scotland 2014, Northern Ireland 13 January 2020, following the Civil Partnership Act 2004.
Saudi contract law
Saudi contract law governs contracts in Saudi Arabia. Long uncodified Shari'a, it was codified by the Civil Transactions Law (نظام المعاملات المدنية), enacted in June 2023 and effective December 2023.
Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody
Sayyed Bozorg "Moody" Mahmoody (1939-2009) was an Iranian-born, US-educated anesthesiologist, husband of Betty Mahmoody, whose 1987 memoir Not Without My Daughter and 1991 film accused him of trapping the family in Iran in 1984; he disputed the account and died in Tehran in 2009.
Scope, characterization and validity in contract conflict of laws
Scope, characterization and validity in contract conflict of laws is a legal study of international contracts. It defines the scope of the chosen law under the Rome I Regulation and the 2015 Hague Principles.
Scots contract law
Scots contract law governs binding agreements in Scotland's mixed legal system. Its distinctive features are the absent consideration requirement and the binding unilateral promise (pollicitatio), confirmed in Regus and RBS v Carlyle, plus recent statutory reform.
Scots law
Scots law is Scotland's non-codified mixed legal system, blending Roman-civilian tradition with English common law after the 1707 Union, shaped by institutional writers such as Stair and Erskine.
Scott Thorson
Scott Thorson was an American dancer and animal trainer, Liberace's live-in lover from the late 1970s until 1982, whose $113 million palimony suit became one of the most publicized in US history.
Second mortgage
Second mortgage (junior lien): a loan secured by a home that already secures another loan; includes home equity loans and HELOCs, paid second in foreclosure, priced higher, used for piggyback purchases, home improvement, and debt consolidation.
Section 230
Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230), part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, shields US online platforms and users from liability for third-party content, with exceptions for federal criminal, intellectual property, and sex trafficking law.
Security deposit
Security deposit: refundable rent paid by tenants against damage and unpaid rent. Caps range from one month (Spain, France, Hawaii) to three months (Italy, Germany) or 5–6 weeks (UK); escrow, TDP schemes, interest, and return deadlines vary by jurisdiction.
Seigneurial system of New France
Seigneurial system of New France (régime seigneurial): semi-feudal land tenure established in the 1620s under Richelieu, with seigneurs, censitaire tenants, strip lots along the St. Lawrence; abolished in Lower Canada in 1854.
Self-help (law)
Self-help (law): unilateral remedy, also called abatement, letting an injured party stop a nuisance, such as cutting encroaching tree branches, without court process; governed by notice rules, the Massachusetts, Virginia, Restatement, and Hawaii rules, and limits on entry and reasonableness.
Separation agreement
A separation agreement is a voluntary private contract between spouses, made during formal separation or before divorce, governing property division, maintenance, child support, and arrangements for children; it does not end the marriage.
Separation period (divorce)
A separation period in divorce law is a required interval of living apart or a waiting period that must pass before a divorce can be granted.