780 articles
Vesting
Vesting (property law): the point at which a future interest becomes fixed in an ascertained holder, also called a vested remainder. Distinguished from contingent remainders by transferability and non-application of the rule against perpetuities.
Vicarious liability
Vicarious liability, or imputed liability, holds a principal responsible for an agent's actionable conduct under respondeat superior, a strict liability doctrine. Covers the Ellerth rule, close-connection test, akin-to-employment limits, and nondelegable duties.
Victoria River Downs Station
Victoria River Downs Station (VRD) is a famed Northern Territory cattle station, leased in 1879 to Fisher and Lyons, stocked in 1883 with 20,000 cattle, and once the world's largest cattle station at 90,650 km2.
Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is the 1994 U.S. federal law, Title IV of P.L. 103-322, funding responses to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking; reauthorized in 2000, 2005, 2013, and 2022.
Vita Food Products Inc v Unus Shipping Co Ltd
Vita Food Products Inc v Unus Shipping Co Ltd [1939] AC 277, a 1939 Privy Council case, upheld an express choice of English law with no England connection, holding choice-of-law clauses valid if bona fide, legal, and not against public policy.
Vittorio Scialoja
Vittorio Scialoja (1856–1933) was an Italian jurist and politician who brought the German concept of the negozio giuridico into Italian private law, led early work on the 1942 Civil Code, and served as foreign minister.
Void marriage
Void marriage: a marriage legally invalid from the start (void ab initio), unlike a voidable marriage valid until annulled; grounds include bigamy, incest, under-age parties; US, UK, and comparative law.
Voidable marriage
Voidable marriage: a marriage valid until a court annuls it by decree of nullity, also called annulable marriage. Distinguished from a void marriage, which was never valid; grounds include lack of consent, non-consummation, and mental incapacity.
Volenti non fit injuria
Volenti non fit injuria, Latin for "to a willing person, no injury is done", is a complete tort defense barring recovery by a claimant who knowingly and voluntarily accepted a risk; basis of assumption of risk, now narrowed in most common-law jurisdictions.
Wagatha Christie
Wagatha Christie, also called Vardy v Rooney, is the English High Court libel case in which Rebekah Vardy sued Coleen Rooney over a 2019 Instagram leak accusation; Rooney won in July 2022, with Vardy later ordered to pay £1.4 million in costs.
Walking Purchase
The Walking Purchase was a fraudulent 1737 land transaction in which Pennsylvania proprietors used an unsigned 1686 deed to take roughly 1,200 square miles from the Lenape.
Wang Hai
Wang Hai (王海) is a Chinese consumer-rights activist who became famous in 1995 by buying counterfeit Sony headphones in Beijing and winning punitive compensation, launching professional fake-busting.
Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025
The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 (UMEED Act) amends India's Waqf Act, 1995, renaming it, removing waqf by user, adding five-year Islam practice and government-property provisions, and adding non-Muslim members to waqf bodies.
Waqf (وقف)
Waqf (وقف, plural awqaf; also habs) is the Islamic perpetual charitable endowment: property made inalienable, its usufruct dedicated to religious or charitable purposes, historically the main provider of education, healthcare, and welfare across Muslim societies.
Ward (law)
Ward (law): a person, usually a child, under the legal care of a court or guardian (wardship). Covers modern ward of court/state status and English feudal wardship, the Court of Wards (1540–1646), Magna Carta clauses, and wardship versus guardianship.
Warranty
Warranty: a legally enforceable promise about a product's condition or performance, express or implied, governed in the US by the Magnuson-Moss Act and UCC, distinct from a guarantee or service contract.
Warren v. District of Columbia
Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. 1981), a D.C. Court of Appeals tort case, held police owe duties to the public at large, not individuals, absent a special relationship, founding the District's public duty doctrine.
Watson v. Employers Liability Assurance Corp.
Watson v. Employers Liability Assurance Corp., 348 U.S. 66 (1954), Supreme Court case upholding Louisiana's direct action statute against Equal Protection, Contract Clause, Due Process, and Full Faith and Credit challenges to an out-of-state policy with a no-action clause.
Weregild
Weregild, also spelled wergeld, was a fixed payment compensating for the killing or wounding of a free person, serving as an alternative to blood feud in early medieval Germanic law.
Wet lease
A wet lease is an aircraft leasing arrangement in which the lessor provides the aircraft with crew, maintenance, and insurance, known in the airline industry as ACMI.
WIC Radio Ltd v Simpson
WIC Radio Ltd v Simpson, 2008 SCC 40, is a Supreme Court of Canada defamation case in which Rafe Mair's fair comment defence succeeded against Kari Simpson, replacing subjective honest belief with an objective test.
Wik Peoples v Queensland
Wik Peoples v Queensland [1996] HCA 40, the Wik decision, was a High Court of Australia native title case holding that pastoral leases do not necessarily extinguish native title, which can coexist with leasehold, pastoral rights prevailing on inconsistency, prompting the 1998 Native Title Act amendments.
Will and testament
Will and testament: a legal document stating a testator's wishes for distributing their estate after death. Covers formalities, capacity, Roman origins, the Statute of Wills 1540, probate, and forced heirship versus testamentary freedom.
Will contest
A will contest, or contest of a will, is a court challenge to a will's validity brought after the testator's death, usually on grounds such as undue influence or lack of capacity.
Women's Charter
The Women's Charter 1961 is the principal Singapore statute governing non-Muslim marriage, divorce, maintenance, and family protection; passed in 1961, it introduced monogamous marriage and remains the core of Singapore family law.
Wrongful death claim
Wrongful death claim: statutory civil action by survivors or a decedent's estate against one whose wrongful act, neglect, or default caused a death; distinct from survival actions and criminal prosecution, from Lord Campbell's Act 1846 to US state statutes.
Wrotham Park Estate Co Ltd v Parkside Homes Ltd
Wrotham Park Estate Co Ltd v Parkside Homes Ltd [1974] 1 WLR 798: English Chancery case; Brightman J refused demolition of covenant-breaching houses and awarded 5% of the developer's profit, founding the "Wrotham Park" negotiating damages measure.
Xu Shoulan v. Peng Yu
Xu Shoulan v. Peng Yu (彭宇案), Nanjing 2007 civil case: elderly woman sued the man who helped her after a fall; the 'common sense' first-instance judgment by judge Wang Hao became China's most criticized ruling on Good Samaritan liability.
Zamindar
Zamindar, also spelled Jamindar, was an Indian landholder who collected fixed revenue for Mughal and colonial rulers, until abolition laws ended the system in the 1950s.
Zhety Zhargy
Zhety Zhargy ("Seven Establishments") was the code of customary law of the Kazakh Khanate, compiled in the late 17th century and traditionally attributed to Khan Tauke.