780 articles
Seven Laws of Noah (שבע מצוות בני נח)
Seven Laws of Noah (Sheva Mitzvot B'nei Noach, Noahide laws): seven Talmudic commandments (Sanhedrin 56a) that rabbinic tradition binds on all non-Jews, covering courts, blasphemy, idolatry, sexual relations, murder, theft, and living-animal flesh, with a modern Noahide movement.
Sharia courts in the Philippines
Sharia courts in the Philippines are special courts applying the 1977 Code of Muslim Personal Laws to Filipino Muslims' family and personal disputes; 5 district and 51 circuit courts, now expanding under the Bangsamoro Organic Law with a Shari'ah High Court.
Single and double-net leases
Single net (N) and double net (NN) leases are commercial lease structures where the tenant pays base rent plus property taxes (N) or taxes plus building insurance (NN), between gross and triple net (NNN) leases; terms lack standardized definitions.
Smith v Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd
Smith v Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd [2024] NZSC 5 is a New Zealand Supreme Court climate tort case in which Ngāpuhi elder Mike Smith's public nuisance, negligence, and novel climate system damage claims against seven emitters were reinstated for trial.
South African contract law
South African contract law blends uncodified Roman-Dutch law and English common law, with good faith as an underlying value, public policy informed by the Constitution as the test for unenforceable terms, and statutes like the Consumer Protection Act protecting weaker parties.
South African law of delict
South African law of delict: the Roman-Dutch-based private-law rules of civil liability. Five elements (conduct, wrongfulness, fault, causation, harm), conditio sine qua non and material contribution causation tests, and state liability under the 1957 State Liability Act.
South Korean defamation law
South Korean defamation law makes defamation both a civil tort and a crime, with over 60,000 complaints a year and punishment possible even for true statements.
Special Marriage Act, 1954
Special Marriage Act, 1954 (विशेष विवाह अधिनियम, 1954): India's secular civil-marriage statute, enacted 9 October 1954 replacing the 1872 Act. Key facts: open to any citizen regardless of religion without conversion; Section 4 conditions (21/18 ages, monogamy); 30-day public notice under Sections 5-7; succession under Indian Succession Act 1925 unless both parties are Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jain.
Spencer's Case
Spencer's Case (1583), King's Bench, 5 Co. Rep. 16a, is the landmark English decision on covenants running with leasehold land: touch and concern, intent, and privity of estate bind assignees.
Spendthrift trust
Spendthrift trust: a US trust restraining a beneficiary from transferring the beneficial interest and blocking creditors from reaching it before distribution. Exception creditors (child/spousal support, federal tax liens) can still attach; DAPTs exist in about 20 states.
Spite fence
Spite fence: a fence or fence-like structure (including tree rows and hedges) built maliciously to annoy a neighboring owner. Statutory heights vary: 5 feet (Kentucky), 6 feet (Indiana, Massachusetts), 10 feet (California).
Spousal liability for debts of the other spouse
Spousal liability for debts of the other spouse covers when a creditor can collect one spouse's debt from the other; marriage alone usually creates no liability.
Spousal privilege
Spousal privilege (marital privilege): evidence-law rule protecting confidential communications between spouses and limiting compelled adverse spousal testimony; reshaped in the US by Trammel v. United States (1980), with exceptions for intra-family crimes.
Spousal support waiver
A spousal support waiver is a clause in a prenuptial, postnuptial, or separation agreement in which a spouse gives up the right to seek alimony after divorce.
Squatting
Squatting, also called adverse possession, is occupying property without permission. Covers criminal law in England and Wales, adverse possession requirements, Roman origins, homelessness links, and comparative legal responses.
Stack v Dowden
Stack v Dowden [2007] UKHL 17, House of Lords cohabitation property case: joint-names homes start at equal beneficial shares, heavy burden to displace; Dowden won 65/35; developed by Jones v Kernott.
Stambovsky v. Ackley
Stambovsky v. Ackley, 169 A.D.2d 254 (N.Y. App. Div. 1991), the "Ghostbusters ruling," held a Nyack, New York house legally haunted because seller Helen Ackley had publicized its ghosts, entitling buyer Jeffrey Stambovsky to rescind his $650,000 contract despite caveat emptor.
Standard form contract
Standard form contract (also contract of adhesion, boilerplate, AGB): pre-written take-it-or-leave-it terms dominating business and consumer contracting; enforced via notice and opportunity to read, regulated by unfair-terms laws in the EU and Australia.
Standard of care
Standard of care: the legal benchmark of reasonable conduct in negligence, from the objective reasonable person test (Vaughan v Menlove, 1837) to professional medical standards (Bolam, Montgomery) and the ALI's 2024 Restatement revision.
State adoption statutes and procedure
State adoption statutes and procedure in the United States define who may adopt, which courts hear cases, required consents and home studies, and how an adoption is finalized.
Statute of frauds
A statute of frauds is a law requiring specified kinds of agreements to be evidenced in writing before they can be enforced. The name derives from the English Statute of Frauds, enacted.
Statutory nuisance
Statutory nuisance is a list of environmental conditions, like noise and smoke, that local authorities in England and Wales must act against under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Stepparent and second-parent adoption
Stepparent and second-parent adoption, also known as coparent adoption, lets a stepparent or a parent's unmarried partner adopt a child without ending that parent's rights.
Strata title
Strata title: Australian property ownership dividing land into individually titled lots plus jointly owned common property, managed by an owners corporation (body corporate, strata company) under a registered strata plan with unit entitlements.
Strategic lawsuit against public participation
SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation): retaliatory litigation used to silence critics through defense costs and damage threats. Term coined by Pring and Canan; countered by US state anti-SLAPP statutes and the EU Anti-SLAPP Directive 2024/1069.
Strict liability
Strict liability is liability regardless of intent or mental state, also called liability without fault. In tort it covers abnormally dangerous activities, certain animals, and defective products (Rylands v Fletcher line); in criminal law it applies mainly to minor offenses such as statutory rape and possession crimes.
Subrogation
Subrogation is the legal process by which one party assumes another's legal rights, such as when an insurer takes over a policyholder's claim against whoever caused the harm.
Succession of Rupert Murdoch
The Murdoch succession battle centers on the 1999 Murdoch Family Trust, which gave Rupert Murdoch's four eldest children equal control of News Corp and Fox Corp, and the 2023-2025 legal fight that ended with Lachlan Murdoch gaining sole voting control through a $3.3 billion settlement.
Summary (law)
Summary (law): summary abatement, removal of a nuisance without judicial proceedings, sometimes without notice or hearing, grounded in common law and Lawton v. Steele, distinguished from administrative abatement.
Supervised visitation
Supervised visitation, also called supervised access or supervised parenting time, is court-ordered parent-child contact observed by a neutral third person, typically after domestic violence, abuse, or neglect concerns, delivered by professional or nonprofessional providers.