644 articles
Ban (law)
Ban (law): a legal prohibition of an activity, product, or substance, via statute, constitutional amendment, administrative order, or writ of prohibition. Covers creation, legality and proportionality limits, US alcohol Prohibition 1920–1933, and unintended consequences.
Bantu Authorities Act, 1951
The Bantu Authorities Act, 1951, later the Black Authorities Act, was a South African apartheid statute making chiefs and headmen agents of the white government in the reserves.
Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970
The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970 was an apartheid-era South African law assigning black South Africans citizenship of ethnic homelands, later renamed the Black States Citizenship Act.
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (GG), the constitution of Germany; drafted 1948-1949 by the 65-member Parliamentary Council, promulgated 23 May 1949, extended to all of Germany on 3 October 1990; includes the eternity clause of Article 79(3).
Basic structure doctrine
Basic structure doctrine: Indian judicial principle from Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala (24 April 1973, 7-6, 13 judges) barring Parliament from altering the Constitution's essential features via Article 368 amendments, developed through Indira Nehru Gandhi, Minerva Mills, Waman Rao, NJAC.
Belarusian language law of 1990
The Belarusian language law of 1990 made Belarusian the sole state language of the Byelorussian SSR, in force from September 1990 until reversed in the 1990s.
Berber Dahir
The Berber Dahir (Arabic: الظهير البربري) was a 1930 decree by the Moroccan sultan, designed by French Protectorate officials, establishing customary courts in Berber tribal areas.
Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger (Bianca Pérez Mora-Macías), Nicaraguan-born British human rights advocate, founder of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, 2004 Right Livelihood laureate, Council of Europe death-penalty abolition ambassador, ex-wife of Mick Jagger.
Bill Clinton pardon controversy
The Bill Clinton pardon controversy covers the 140 last-day pardons of January 20, 2001, notably fugitive financier Marc Rich, the bypassed Justice Department review, congressional findings, and the closed pay-to-play investigation.
Bill of attainder
A bill of attainder, or act of attainder, is a law that convicts and punishes a person or group without trial; the US Constitution bans Congress and states from passing one.
Bill of rights
Bill of rights: a formal charter of individual rights against state power, from the English Bill of Rights 1689 and the US Bill of Rights (first ten amendments, 1791) to modern statutory charters like Canada's Charter and the UK Human Rights Act.
Bill of Rights 1689
Bill of Rights 1689 (also Bill of Rights 1688), 1 Will. & Mar. Sess. 2 c. 2: English statute from the Glorious Revolution limiting the Crown, confirming parliamentary rights, and settling succession under William III and Mary II.
Birthright citizenship in the United States
Birthright citizenship in the United States grants U.S. citizenship at birth to nearly everyone born on American soil under the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause, confirmed by Wong Kim Ark (1898) and Trump v. Barbara (2026), with narrow exceptions for diplomats' children, hostile-occupation births, and tribal Indians.
Black Codes (United States)
Black Codes were discriminatory state laws passed by Southern legislatures in 1865–1866 during Presidential Reconstruction, regulating freedmen's labor through contracts, vagrancy, and apprenticeship; Congress answered with the 1866 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment.
Bolivian Constitution of 1938
The Bolivian Constitution of 1938 (Constitución Política del Estado de 1938) was Bolivia's twelfth constitution and the first to recognize social rights, promulgated by President Germán Busch.
Bolivian Constitution of 1967
The Bolivian Constitution of 1967 (Constitución Política del Estado de 1967) was Bolivia's fundamental law, promulgated under General René Barrientos and in force until the 2009 Constitution replaced it.
Bolivian Constitution of 2009
The Bolivian Constitution of 2009 is Bolivia's fundamental law, approved by referendum and promulgated by Evo Morales, renaming the country the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
Bolivian constitutional reform of 1994
The Bolivian constitutional reform of 1994, enacted as Law 1585 under President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, redefined Bolivia as a multiethnic, pluricultural republic and recognized indigenous rights.
Breach of the peace
Breach of the peace is a UK common law concept covering actual or threatened violence disturbing public order. Defined by R v Howell [1982]; limited by Laporte's imminence test; in Scotland a common law crime.
British National (Overseas) passport
British National (Overseas) passport, or BN(O)/BNO passport: British travel document for holders of British National (Overseas) status created by the Hong Kong Act 1985 for Hong Kong BDTCs before the 1997 handover; non-transmissible, no automatic UK residence, but base for the 2021 BN(O) visa route to settlement.
British nationality law
British nationality law governs who holds the UK's six nationality statuses under the British Nationality Act 1981, in force 1 January 1983, tracing from common law allegiance through the 1948 CUKC era to modern naturalisation and right of abode rules.
British North America Acts
British North America Acts: UK statutes, led by the 1867 Act, that created the Dominion of Canada and served as its constitution until renamed Constitution Acts at the 1982 patriation.
British subject
British subject is a UK nationality status: before 1949 it covered nearly everyone connected to the UK, matched Commonwealth citizenship from 1949 to 1983, and since 1 January 1983 under the British Nationality Act 1981 is a narrow residual status held mainly by former British subjects without citizenship and Ireland-connected claimants.
Buck v. Bell
Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927): Supreme Court case upholding Virginia's compulsory sterilization law, 8–1, in Holmes's "three generations of imbeciles" opinion; never overturned.
Buckley v. Valeo
Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976), the landmark Supreme Court campaign finance decision upholding FECA contribution limits and disclosure while striking down expenditure limits and the original FEC appointment method.
Bundy standoff
Bundy standoff: April 2014 armed confrontation at Cliven Bundy's Bunkerville, Nevada ranch, where Bundy and militia supporters forced the BLM to abandon a court-ordered cattle impoundment over $1 million in unpaid federal grazing fees; prosecutions later collapsed over Brady violations.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682 (2014): 5-4 Supreme Court ruling holding that RFRA lets closely held for-profit corporations with religious objections, like Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, refuse ACA contraceptive coverage.
Butler Act
Butler Act refers to two laws: Tennessee's 1925 anti-evolution statute by John Washington Butler, which triggered the Scopes trial, and the UK Education Act 1944, R.A. Butler's free secondary education reform.
By-law
A by-law, also spelled byelaw, is a local law made by a council or delegated body under a statutory enabling power, carrying penalties, with force of law in its area; US and Canadian usage calls municipal ordinances bylaws.
Cabinet Legislation Bureau
The Cabinet Legislation Bureau (内閣法制局) is the organ of the Japanese Cabinet that examines bills, orders, and treaties and gives official opinions on interpreting laws.