644 articles
Jean Rivero
Jean Rivero (1910–2001) was a French jurist and professor of public law at Poitiers and Paris who wrote the standard Précis of administrative law and won the 1986 Balzan Prize.
Jerusalem Law
Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel (חוק יסוד: ירושלים בירת ישראל), Israeli Basic Law of 30 July 1980 declaring united Jerusalem Israel's capital; entrenched in 2000; declared null and void by UNSC Resolution 478.
John Austin (legal philosopher)
John Austin (1790–1859), English jurist and first professor of jurisprudence at University of London, author of The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832), founder of analytical jurisprudence and the command theory of legal positivism, later famously criticized by H.L.A. Hart.
Joseph Sax
Joseph Sax (1936–2014) was an American legal scholar known as the father of environmental law, whose 1970 article revived the public trust doctrine for protecting natural resources.
Judicial activism
Judicial activism, sometimes called legislating from the bench, is the charge that judges rule on their own policy preferences, and it is usually contrasted with judicial restraint.
Judicial review
Judicial review is the power of courts to invalidate legislative and executive acts that conflict with a constitution, established for US federal law by Marbury v. Madison (1803); it also denotes UK challenges to public-body decisions, and comes in centralized and diffuse, strong- and weak-form models.
Judicial Watch
Judicial Watch, founded in 1994 by Larry Klayman, is a conservative U.S. activist organization that files FOIA lawsuits against government officials; Tom Fitton is president; Media Bias/Fact Check rates it far right with low factual reporting.
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is a court's or government agency's power to adjudicate and issue orders, and the territory where that power may be exercised. Covers subject matter and personal jurisdiction, Pennoyer, International Shoe, federal and state divisions, and international aspects.
Jus sanguinis
Jus sanguinis, "right of blood," is the principle that citizenship passes from parent to child regardless of birthplace; it is the global default, contrasting with jus soli birthright citizenship.
Jus soli
Jus soli, or birthright citizenship, grants nationality by birth on a state's territory, contrasting with jus sanguinis descent. Unconditional mainly in the Americas (30 of 35 countries); conditional in UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia; grounded in the Fourteenth Amendment and Wong Kim Ark.
Kadir Özkaya
Kadir Özkaya (born 1963, Tarsus) is President of the Turkish Constitutional Court since 20 April 2024; former Council of State rapporteur-judge, Court rapporteur, justice from 2014, and twice vice-president.
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Ken Saro-Wiwa (Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa, 1941–1995), Nigerian writer and television producer, led MOSOP, the Ogoni campaign against Shell's oil pollution in the Niger Delta, and was hanged with the Ogoni Nine on 10 November 1995 after a condemned trial.
Kerala Motor Vehicles Department
Kerala Motor Vehicles Department (MVD): Kerala state agency, formed 1958, enforcing the Motor Vehicles Act 1988; handles registration, licenses, permits, road tax, and enforcement via VAHAN, SARATHI, and Virtual Check Post systems.
Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala
Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, the Fundamental Rights Case, is a 1973 Supreme Court of India decision holding that Parliament's amendments cannot alter the Constitution's basic structure.
Kim Sanghwan (김상환)
Kim Sanghwan (김상환), South Korean jurist born 1966 in Daejeon; Seoul National University law graduate; Supreme Court Justice from December 2018 under President Moon Jae-in; President of the Constitutional Court of Korea since 24 July 2025.
Land development
Land development, also called land use change or land conversion, is the process of acquiring, subdividing, and building on land to raise its value. Covers regulation, environmental impacts, farmland conversion, and planning.
Laurence Tribe
Laurence Tribe, Laurence H. Tribe, American constitutional law scholar, Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School (1968-2020), author of the 1978 treatise American Constitutional Law and advocate in 35 Supreme Court cases.
Law enforcement in India
Law enforcement in India: state police forces and central agencies (NIA, Enforcement Directorate) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (गृह मंत्रालय). Policing is a state subject under the Constitution; the Police Act 1861 and the 2023 criminal codes frame the system.
Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act
Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA), P.L. 108-277, also called H.R. 218, is a 2004 US federal law letting qualified current and retired police officers carry concealed firearms nationwide under 18 U.S.C. 926B and 926C, amended in 2010 and 2013.
Law of Return (חוק השבות)
Law of Return (חוק השבות), Israel's 1950 law giving every Jew the right to immigrate (aliyah) as an oleh; amended 1954 and 1970, when sections 4A and 4B extended eligibility to children, grandchildren, and spouses of Jews and defined "Jew".
Law of the United Kingdom
The law of the United Kingdom comprises three separate legal systems, England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, under an uncodified constitution of parliamentary sovereignty, common law, and devolved legislatures.
Law of the United States
Law of the United States: the federal-state legal system under the U.S. Constitution, combining English common law, statutes, and regulations; 94 federal district courts, 13 circuits, state courts handling most cases, Louisiana's mixed civil law exception.
Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress
Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress (中华人民共和国民族团结进步促进法), a PRC statute adopted March 12, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026, mandating a shared Chinese national identity, Mandarin-medium schooling, and extraterritorial liability under Article 63.
Lawmaking procedure in India
Lawmaking procedure in India: how a Bill passes three readings in both Houses of Parliament, committee scrutiny, and Presidential assent to become an Act; covers Money Bills, Article 368 amendments, and private members' Bills.
Leadership Code (Tanzania)
The Leadership Code was a 1967 set of Tanzanian conduct rules, part of the Arusha Declaration, barring leaders from shares, rents, and second salaries until 1991.
Legal affairs of the second Trump presidency
Legal affairs of the second Trump presidency: executive orders on independent agencies, Supreme Court removal and emergency-docket rulings, DOJ voter-roll litigation, press-access disputes, and expert surveys finding the lowest rule-of-law ratings since 2015.
Legal status of transgender people
Legal status of transgender people: laws and court rulings on changing legal gender, from self-ID systems like Germany's 2024 Act and Nepal's 2007 ruling to medical-requirement regimes, plus anti-discrimination law, UN and Council of Europe standards, and the UK 2025 Equality Act ruling.
Lei Áurea
Lei Áurea (Golden Law), Law No. 3,353 of 13 May 1888, the Brazilian statute signed by Princess Isabel that abolished slavery in Brazil, freed roughly 600,000 people, and granted no compensation or follow-up policies.
Letters patent
Letters patent (litterae patentes, open letters) are public legal documents issued under the Great Seal, historically granting lands, offices, titles and monopolies, and still used in the UK for appointments, honours and Royal Assent; the invention patent descends from them via the 1624 Statute of Monopolies.
Lettres de cachet
Lettres de cachet: sealed royal letters of Ancien Régime France, signed by the king and countersigned by a secretary of state, ordering imprisonment, exile, or internment without trial; abolished March 1790.