9,901 articles
Obligations ex delicto
An obligation ex delicto is a personal obligation imposed by operation of law, binding a wrongdoer to compensate or desist; it descends from Roman law and parallels common-law tort.
Obligations of mandatory powers under the League mandates system
The obligations of mandatory powers were the legal duties under Article 22 of the League Covenant requiring the well-being of mandated territories' inhabitants, bans on slavery, and annual reports.
Occupied Enemy Territory Administration
Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA): British military government of former Ottoman Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Transjordan from late 1917, divided into South, North, and East zones, replaced by League mandates in 1920.
October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery
The October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery: vault supervisor David Scott Ghantt stole about $17.4 million from the Charlotte, North Carolina vault with Kelly Campbell and Steve and Michelle Chambers, fled to Mexico, and was caught after the conspirators' conspicuous spending; 17 people pled guilty.
Oder–Neisse line
Oder–Neisse line: the German-Polish border along the Oder and Neisse rivers, set provisionally at Potsdam in 1945, recognized by the GDR in 1950, by West Germany in the 1970 Treaty of Warsaw, and made final in 1990.
Odious debt
Odious debt, also called illegitimate debt, is a doctrine systematized by Alexander Sack in 1927 holding that debts incurred by despotic regimes without popular consent, benefit, or creditor innocence are unenforceable, though no tribunal has applied it.
Offender profiling
Offender profiling (criminal profiling, FBI criminal investigative analysis, UK behavioral investigative advice): inferring offender attributes from crime scene, modus operandi, and victimology to narrow suspect searches; validity remains statistically unvalidated, case linkage strongest.
Offer and acceptance
Offer and acceptance is the contract-law analysis of agreement: a sufficiently definite offer showing intent to be bound, accepted by the offeree. Covers invitations to treat, the postal rule, revocation, objective versus subjective assent, and electronic contracting across common law, civil law, and Islamic law.
Office of Child Support Enforcement
Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), now Office of Child Support Services (OCSS): federal HHS/ACF agency overseeing the Title IV-D child support program created in 1975, which locates parents, establishes paternity and orders, and collects and distributes support.
Office of Children's Issues
Office of Children's Issues (CI), CA/OCS/CI: State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs office, created 1994, serving as U.S. Central Authority for the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention and the 1993 Hague Adoption Convention, handling abduction and adoption casework and prevention.
Office of General Counsel of the Supreme Court of the United States
The Office of General Counsel of the Supreme Court is the Court's in-house legal office, created in 1972, handling certiorari petitions and the Court's own legal needs.
Office of Legal Counsel of the Supreme Court of the United States
The Office of Legal Counsel of the Supreme Court of the United States is a two-attorney office created in 1972 to handle procedural questions and act as the Court's general counsel.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), an independent US Treasury bureau created in 1863, charters and polices all national banks and federal savings associations.
Office of the Counsel to the Chief Justice
The Office of the Counsel to the Chief Justice is the Supreme Court aide serving as the Chief Justice's chief of staff, created by statute in 1972.
Office of the Ombudsperson for the ISIL and Al-Qaida List
UN office reviewing delisting petitions for the ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List, created by resolution 1904 (2009); issues comprehensive reports and recommendations, mandate extended to 17 June 2027.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) is the UN Secretariat department promoting human rights, established December 1993; serves the Human Rights Council, UPR, treaty bodies, and special procedures, led by Volker Türk from Geneva.
Offshore company
Offshore company: a legal entity incorporated in a foreign, typically low-tax jurisdiction such as the BVI or Cayman Islands for holding, financing, and cross-border structuring; subject to CRS, FATCA, and beneficial ownership rules at home.
Ohio District Courts of Appeals
Ohio District Courts of Appeals: the twelve intermediate appellate courts under Ohio Constitution Article IV, three-judge panels, 4 to 12 elected judges per district, reviewing common pleas, municipal, and county court judgments.
Ohio State Reformatory
Ohio State Reformatory (Mansfield Reformatory): former Mansfield, Ohio prison, 1896-1990, designed by Levi Scofield, closed after inmate lawsuit, now a museum and The Shawshank Redemption filming site.
Oil Platforms case
ICJ case in which Iran sued the United States over the 1987 and 1988 destruction of three National Iranian Oil Company offshore complexes; the Court in 2003 rejected both claims for reparation, finding no armed attack justified the strikes and no treaty commerce was impeded.
Oil-for-Food Programme
The Oil-for-Food Programme (OFFP) was a UN program under Security Council resolution 986 (1995) letting sanctioned Iraq sell oil for food, medicine, and civilian goods; it ran December 1996 to November 2003, moved over $67 billion in oil revenue, and was later investigated for corruption by the Volcker Committee.
Oirat code of 1640
The Oirat code of 1640, known as Ikh Tsaaz (Great Code), is a Mongol-Oirat law code adopted at a 1640 congress of princes from Dzungaria, Khalkha Mongolia, and Kalmykia.
Ojetta R. Thompson
Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson, born 1951, is an American jurist serving as a senior judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals, appointed by President Obama and confirmed in 2010.
Oklahoma Girl Scout murders
The Oklahoma Girl Scout murders: the June 13, 1977 killings of three Girl Scouts (Lori Farmer, Michelle Guse, Doris Milner) at Camp Scott near Locust Grove; Gene Leroy Hart was tried and acquitted, and the case remains open.
Olayemi Olurin
Olayemi Olurin, also known as Olurinatti, is a Bahamian-Nigerian-American lawyer, writer, and political commentator; a former NYC public defender, prison abolitionist, Rikers closure advocate, and founder of Olurinatti Media.
Old Sparky
Old Sparky is a nickname for US prison electric chairs, most famously Texas's chair used for 361 executions (1924-1964), now at the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville; other states' chairs share the name.
Oleksandr Tupytskyi
Oleksandr Tupytskyi (Олександр Тупицький), born 1963, Ukrainian jurist, Constitutional Court judge from 2013 and Chairman 2019–2022; led Decision 13-r/2020 striking anti-corruption laws, suspended by Zelenskyi decrees later annulled, charged with witness tampering, fled abroad, sanctioned by Ukraine in 2025.
Oliver Brown (American activist)
Oliver Leon Brown (1918-1961), Topeka welder and AME pastor, was lead plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), recruited by the NAACP after his daughter Linda was denied entry to Sumner Elementary.
Oliver Ellsworth
Oliver Ellsworth (1745–1807), Connecticut lawyer, senator, and third Chief Justice of the United States (1796–1800), drafted the Judiciary Act of 1789, shaped the Connecticut Compromise, and shifted the early Court toward unified per curiam opinions before resigning to serve as minister to France.
Oliver Tambo
Oliver Tambo (OR, Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo, 1917–1993), South African lawyer and anti-apartheid leader who headed the ANC in exile as President 1967–1991, co-founded the ANC Youth League and Mandela and Tambo law firm, and returned as National Chairperson in 1991.