780 articles
Children Act 2004
Children Act 2004 (2004 c. 31), UK statute of 15 November 2004 providing the legal backbone of Every Child Matters: section 11 safeguarding duty, Local Safeguarding Children Boards, Children's Commissioner for England, and Welsh children's services provisions.
Children and Family Relationships Act 2015
The Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 (No. 9 of 2015) is Irish legislation reforming guardianship, custody, access, and, uniquely, assigning legal parentage for donor-assisted human reproduction, establishing the National Donor-Conceived Person Register and banning anonymous donation from 4 May 2020.
Chilean Civil Code
The Chilean Civil Code, drafted principally by Andrés Bello, was approved 14 December 1855 under Manuel Montt and effective 1 January 1857; it remains in force and shaped civil codes across Latin America and beyond.
Chilling effect
Chilling effect: legal doctrine describing deterrence of lawful speech by threatened sanction or litigation, from US First Amendment cases (Laird v. Tatum) to defamation law, SLAPPs, and the EU anti-SLAPP Directive 2024/1069.
Chinese contract law
Chinese contract law is codified in Book III of China's Civil Code, effective 2021, replacing the 1999 Contract Law; its 29 chapters cover general provisions, 18 typical contracts, and quasi-contracts.
Chinese law
Chinese law: the socialist, civil-law-based legal system of the PRC, headed by the 1982 Constitution, with NPC statutes, State Council regulations, a four-level court system, the 2020 Civil Code, and state-owned land with use rights.
Chinese property law
Chinese property law governs ownership in the PRC: no private land ownership exists, land is state or collective owned, private parties hold land-use rights under the 2007 Property Rights Law, now in the 2021 Civil Code.
Choice of law
Choice of law in US contract disputes: which jurisdiction's substantive law governs, via clauses enforced under UCC 1-105(6) and Restatement (Second) § 187, the most-significant-relationship test, public-policy limits, and comparison with the Rome Convention.
Choice of law clause
Choice of law clause: also called governing law clause; contract provision selecting which jurisdiction's substantive law governs disputes; distinct from forum selection clauses; limited by mandatory rules, public policy, and weaker-party protections under Rome I, Restatement §187, and the 2015 Hague Principles.
Choice of law in contracts (United States)
Choice of law in contracts is the body of rules US courts use to decide which state's law governs a dispute when states differ, since US contracts are governed by state law.
Citizen's arrest
Citizen's arrest: detention of a suspected offender by a private person rather than police, rooted in English common law and the 1285 Statute of Winchester. Legal in most US states except Georgia (repealed 2021 after Ahmaud Arbery's killing), with felony/misdemeanor limits and false imprisonment liability.
Citizenship and immigration for adopted children in Canada
A child adopted abroad by a Canadian parent can become Canadian through a direct citizenship grant or through sponsorship for permanent residence followed by naturalization, with different eligibility rules.
Civil Code of Russia
Civil Code of the Russian Federation (ГК РФ): the Russian Federation's private-law code, adopted in four parts 1994–2006 (Federal Laws 51-FZ, 14-FZ, 146-FZ, 230-FZ), covering persons, property, obligations, inheritance, and intellectual property, with continual amendments since 1996.
Civil Code of the People's Republic of China
Civil Code of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国民法典), China's unified private-law code: adopted May 28, 2020, effective January 1, 2021, 1,260 articles in seven books, first PRC law titled 'code', after five codification attempts since 1954.
Civil Code of the Philippines
Civil Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 386), the 1949 statute governing persons, property, obligations and contracts, and succession; drafted by the Code Commission, largely derived from the Spanish Civil Code of 1889, partially superseded by the Family Code of 1988.
Civil Code of Ukraine (Цивільний кодекс України)
Civil Code of Ukraine (Цивільний кодекс України, Law No. 435-IV, 16 January 2003): Ukraine's core private-law code, applied subsidiarily to family relations alongside the 2002 Family Code, and now undergoing recodification via draft bill No. 15150.
Civil law (common law)
Civil law (common law): the code-based legal tradition derived from Roman law and Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis, contrasted with English-derived common law; codes over precedent, Napoleonic Code 1804, BGB 1900, dominant in Europe and former colonies.
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law (legal system), also called continental or Romano-Germanic law, is a legal system derived from Roman law and based on codified statutes, covering about 60% of the world, distinct from common law's reliance on judicial precedent.
Civil partnership in the United Kingdom
Civil partnership in the UK is a legal relationship created by the Civil Partnership Act 2004, originally for same-sex couples and extended to opposite-sex couples in 2019; formed by signing a document, it gives rights close to marriage while remaining a separate legal regime.
Civil solidarity pact
The civil solidarity pact (pacte civil de solidarité, PACS) is a French civil union contract created by the law of 15 November 1999, open to same- and different-sex couples, registered free at a town hall, with default separation of property and inheritance-tax exemption for the surviving partner.
Clare's Law
Clare's Law, formally the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), is a police policy in England and Wales, named for Clare Wood, letting people ask police about a partner's violence history; rolled out March 2014.
Clean Air Act 1956
The Clean Air Act 1956 was a UK law, the first nationwide legislation against air pollution, introducing smoke control areas after the Great Smog of London of 1952.
Clean-break settlement and capitalization of maintenance
Clean-break settlement (England and Wales, MCA 1973 s.25A): final divorce financial settlement dismissing all spousal claims, typically via a Duxbury-calculated lump sum capitalizing maintenance; Duxbury Working Party reformed assumptions in November 2024.
Closed adoption
Closed adoption: adoption with no contact or identifying information exchanged between birth and adoptive parents, historically paired with sealed records in the US; largely supplanted since the 1990s by open adoption.
Codicil (will)
Codicil (will), from Latin codicillus: a separate legal document supplementing, altering, or revoking a will's contents. Requires the same execution formalities as a will; Roman in origin, long used to amend testaments.
Codified obligations systems
A codified obligations system is a national code regulating obligations, the enforceable duties linking creditor and debtor, notably the French Code civil of 1804 and the German BGB of 1900.
Cohabitation in the United Kingdom
Cohabitation in the United Kingdom is living together without marriage, a growing trend that currently provides no automatic property or inheritance rights in England and Wales.
Common intention constructive trust
A common intention constructive trust is a trust of land arising by operation of law to enforce a shared, unrecorded intention about beneficial ownership, backed by detrimental reliance.
Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, or informal marriage, is a valid marriage formed without a license or ceremony by mutual consent, cohabitation, and holding out as married; only about nine U.S. states and D.C. allow new ones, and all states recognize those validly formed elsewhere.
Community property
Community property is a marital property regime, of Spanish civil-law origin, under which assets acquired during marriage belong equally to both spouses. Nine US states plus Guam and Puerto Rico mandate it; Alaska, South Dakota, and Tennessee allow opt-in.