780 articles
Comparative defamation case law
Comparative defamation case law is the study of how different legal systems resolve defamation, comparing burdens of proof, defenses, and damages across landmark cases like Sullivan and Lingens.
Comparative family law
Comparative family law is the comparison of family-law rules of two or more jurisdictions, covering marriage, divorce, property, and children, and differs from international family law, which handles cross-border rules.
Comparative intellectual property law
Comparative intellectual property law is the study of how copyright, patent, and trademark rules differ across jurisdictions, from first-to-file versus first-to-use trademark systems to TRIPS flexibilities.
Comparative trust law
Comparative trust law studies how trust-like fiduciary institutions, in which property is administered by a fiduciary for others, operate across legal systems, asking whether the devices used are functionally equivalent.
Concurrent estate
Concurrent estate: shared property ownership by two or more people, in forms including tenancy in common, joint tenancy (with right of survivorship and four unities), and tenancy by the entirety.
Condominium
A condominium is a form of property ownership giving individual title to a unit plus an undivided share of common elements, run by a unit owners' association; also called strata title or commonhold. First enacted in US law in Puerto Rico in 1958; distinct from housing cooperatives.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality: the legal and contractual obligation not to divulge protected information to third parties. Covers confidentiality clauses, NDAs, standard exceptions, enforceability limits, arbitration, and post-#MeToo reform such as the UK Employment Rights Act 2025.
Conflict of contract laws
Conflict of contract laws, or contractual choice of law, decides which jurisdiction's law governs a multi-jurisdiction contract. Key rules: Restatement (Second) §187, UCC reasonable-relation test, party autonomy limits, and choice of law clauses.
Conflict of divorce laws
Conflict of divorce laws governs which court grants a divorce, which law applies, and recognition of foreign decrees. Also called private international family law; the US applies forum law via domicile-based jurisdiction, while the EU's Rome III uses party choice of law.
Conflict of laws
Conflict of laws, or private international law, determines which jurisdiction's law applies, which court hears a case, and whether foreign judgments are recognized. Key instruments include the Hague Conference conventions and the EU's Rome I and Rome II regulations.
Conflict of laws in marital agreements
Conflict of laws in marital agreements is the private international law field deciding which State's law governs a prenuptial agreement and whether foreign courts enforce it.
Conflict of marriage laws
Conflict of marriage laws is the private international law field governing which law decides a marriage's validity and recognition across borders, using lex loci celebrationis, domicile for capacity, and the public policy exception, notably in same-sex marriage cases.
Consent, eligibility and adoption procedure in Canadian adoption law
Consent, eligibility, and adoption procedure in Canadian adoption law are governed by provincial statutes, with children's consent required from age 12 in most provinces and the child's best interests paramount.
Conservatorship
Conservatorship, called guardianship in some states, is a US court arrangement appointing a conservator to manage personal or financial affairs of an adult deemed unable to do so; covers LPS and probate types, alternatives, abuse concerns, and Britney Spears reform impact.
Consideration
Consideration is the exchange of value, such as mutual promises, that common law contract law requires to make a promise enforceable, separating bargains from unenforceable gifts. Also called: contract consideration; counterpart concept, civil law causa.
Consideration in English law
Consideration in English law is the price exchanged for a promise, required to enforce informal contracts. Key rules: sufficiency not adequacy, past consideration invalid, practical benefit (Williams v Roffey), part-payment rule (Foakes v Beer), promissory estoppel.
Constand v. Cosby
Constand v. Cosby is Andrea Constand's 2005 E.D. Pa. civil suit against Bill Cosby, settled confidentially in 2006 for nearly $3.4 million; its unsealed 2015 deposition triggered criminal charges and the 2021 reversal of Cosby's conviction.
Constructive trust
Constructive trust: an equitable remedy and legal fiction reversing unjust enrichment, ordering a party to transfer property it cannot equitably keep. Institutional (automatic, English law) versus remedial (discretionary, Canadian) forms; FHR extended it to bribes.
Consummation
Consummation, in law, the completion of a thing; in marriage, the first act of sexual intercourse after the ceremony. Consent, not intercourse, makes a marriage; non-consummation can ground annulment in many jurisdictions.
Contract
Contract (law): a legally enforceable agreement creating mutual obligations. Key names: assumpsit, stipulatio, pacta sunt servanda, UNIDROIT Principles. Defined by offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, legality; developed from Roman and English common law roots.
Contributory negligence
Contributory negligence is the common law tort rule barring any plaintiff recovery when the plaintiff's own negligence contributed at all to the injury, now retained only in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., with comparative negligence elsewhere.
Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations 1980
Rome Convention (1980), Convention 80/934/EEC, opened for signature in Rome on 19 June 1980 and in force 1 April 1991, set uniform EU conflict-of-laws rules for contract governing law via party choice and closest connection, and was replaced by the Rome I Regulation except for Denmark.
Convention on the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance
The Convention on the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance, done at New York 20 June 1956, is a UN multilateral treaty helping claimants recover maintenance from respondents abroad via Transmitting and Receiving Agencies; in force 25 May 1957, 64 parties.
Conversion (law)
Conversion (law): intentional tort of wrongfully exercising dominion over another's chattel, also called trover historically. Remedy is return or fair market value damages; English law limits it to tangible property, excluding Bitcoin.
Conveyancing
Conveyancing is the legal transfer of property ownership, covering contract drafting, searches, exchange of contracts, and completion, performed by solicitors or licensed conveyancers in England and Wales.
Copyright
Copyright is automatic intellectual-property protection for original works of authorship fixed in tangible form, covering rights to reproduce, distribute, adapt, perform, and display, with duration, fair use, Berne Convention harmonization, and AI-era disputes defining it.
Copyright Act (Ghana)
The Copyright Act, 2005 (Act 690) is the principal statute governing copyright and related rights in Ghana. Enacted in 2005, it replaced the 1985 law and protects folklore.
Copyright Act of 1976
The Copyright Act of 1976 (Pub. L. 94-553), signed October 19, 1976, effective January 1, 1978, is the comprehensive U.S. copyright statute replacing the 1909 Act: fixation-based protection, life-plus-50 (now 70) terms, codified fair use, and termination rights.
Copyright law of Australia
Copyright law of Australia: the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), administered by the Attorney-General's Department, grants automatic, unregistered rights, uses fair dealing exceptions rather than fair use, and was amended by the Copyright Amendment Act 2026 adding Australia's first orphan works scheme; no text and data mining exception for AI exists.
Copyright law of Chile
Copyright law of Chile: Ley 17.336 on Intellectual Property (1970), the special statute governing author's rights and related rights. Covers moral and patrimonial rights, amendments through Law 20.435 (2010), the DDI registry, collective management societies, and pending digital-era reform bills.