9,901 articles
Operation Yewtree
Operation Yewtree was a Metropolitan Police investigation into historical sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile and others, launched in October 2012 after an ITV documentary aired abuse allegations.
Opinio juris sive necessitatis
Opinio juris sive necessitatis (opinio juris), Latin for 'an opinion of law or necessity', is the subjective element of customary international law: states must act from a sense of legal right or obligation, not mere usage.
Opinions of sitting US Supreme Court justices
The opinions of sitting US Supreme Court justices are tallied each term as majority opinions, concurrences, and dissents; in 2025-26 Thomas wrote the most, 28, and Roberts the fewest.
Opposition to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom
Opposition to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom: Native Hawaiian resistance after the January 17, 1893 coup against Queen Liliʻuokalani, including the 1895 Wilcox Rebellion, the 21,269-signature Kūʻē Petitions of Hui Aloha ʻĀina, and Senate lobbying that defeated the 1897 annexation treaty.
Opt-outs in the European Union
Opt-outs in the European Union are treaty-based exemptions letting member states stay outside specific EU policies, notably Denmark's four Maastricht opt-outs (euro, defense, citizenship, justice) and the UK's EMU, Social Protocol, and Schengen exemptions.
Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict
The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), a 2000 treaty, prohibits compulsory recruitment of persons under 18 in armed forces.
Optional Protocol to the Convention on Special Missions
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on Special Missions is a 1969 treaty giving the International Court of Justice compulsory jurisdiction over disputes between its parties.
Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations
Two treaties adopted at Vienna on 18 April 1961 alongside the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, covering compulsory ICJ dispute settlement and diplomats' nationality; both entered into force on 24 April 1964.
Oral argument before the United States Supreme Court
Oral argument before the United States Supreme Court is the courtroom session where lawyers for each side answer the justices' questions before the Court decides a case.
Order of Attorneys of Brazil
The Order of Attorneys of Brazil (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil, OAB) is the national bar association holding a statutory monopoly on the practice of law in Brazil.
Oregon Treaty
Oregon Treaty (Treaty of Oregon, 1846): Anglo-American treaty signed June 15, 1846, setting the 49th parallel as the Pacific Northwest border, ending joint occupation, and leaving the San Juan Islands dispute for 1872 arbitration.
Orelia E. Merchant
Orelia E. Merchant, also known as Orelia Eleta Merchant, is an American jurist serving as a US district judge for the Eastern District of New York since 2023.
Organic Regulations
The Organic Regulations (Regulamentele Organice) were the first quasi-constitutional laws of Wallachia and Moldavia, promulgated in 1831 and 1832 under Russian occupation, introducing the separation of powers.
Organised crime in India
Organised crime in India: structured syndicates committing continuing unlawful activity for profit, from Mumbai's D-Company to sand and gold mafias. Governed by MCOCA 1999, UAPA, PMLA, and BNS 2023 Sections 111–112; 840 organised crime cases registered in 2024.
Organised crime in Ireland
Organised crime in Ireland: family-based gangs (Kinahan, Hutch), the New IRA, cocaine trafficking via Dublin and ports, GNDOCB and Criminal Justice Act 2006 responses, €390m seizures since 2019, and the €157m MV Matthew case.
Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos
La Organización de Narcotraficantes Unidos (La ONU) is a Puerto Rican drug-trafficking alliance formed around 2004 by San Juan housing-project gangs, distinct from Colombia's Clan del Golfo; it trafficked cocaine to New York and was dismantled through RICO prosecutions.
Organized crime
Organized crime: continuing profit-driven crime by structured groups. Key facts: UNTOC (2000) defines organized criminal groups (3+ members, serious crimes, material benefit) but not the term itself; estimated $870 billion yearly.
Organized crime in Italy
Organized crime in Italy: Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, and Sacra Corona Unita, mafia-type groups defined by Article 416-bis (1982), trafficking drugs and infiltrating public procurement and the legal economy.
Original jurisdiction
Original jurisdiction is a court's power to hear a case first, rather than on appeal. Covers the U.S. Supreme Court's Article III original jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. §1251, state supreme courts, and foreign apex courts.
Originalism
Originalism is a theory of constitutional interpretation holding that the U.S. Constitution means what it did at adoption, chiefly via original public meaning; its rival is living constitutionalism, and Scalia, Gorsuch, and the Federalist Society champion it.
Orinda D. Evans
Orinda D. Evans, born 1943, is a senior United States district judge for the Northern District of Georgia, appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
Orlando Anderson
Orlando 'Baby Lane' Anderson, Southside Compton Crips member and nephew of Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, was beaten by Tupac Shakur's entourage at the MGM Grand in 1996, questioned but never charged in Shakur's murder, and killed in a 1998 Compton shootout.
Orlando L. Garcia
Orlando L. Garcia, born Orlando Luis Garcia in 1952, is a US district judge for the Western District of Texas, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994 and chief judge from 2016 to 2022.
Orton Chirwa
Orton Chirwa was a Malawian lawyer and politician who founded the Malawi Congress Party, served as Malawi's first Minister of Justice, and died in prison in 1992.
Orville Schell
Orville Schell, American journalist and China historian, Asia Society Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations; former UC Berkeley journalism dean, author of Wealth and Power and My Old Home.
Oscar Ray Bolin
Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., Florida murderer and confessed killer also linked to Stephanie Collins and Natalie Holley cases; tried three times for the 1986 Teri Lynn Matthews murder, executed January 7, 2016 by lethal injection at age 53.
Oscar Zeta Acosta
Oscar Zeta Acosta (1935–disappeared 1974), Chicano attorney, author of Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and Revolt of the Cockroach People, defender of the East L.A. 13, and Thompson's 'Dr. Gonzo', vanished off Mazatlán.
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén
Osiel Cárdenas Guillén (born 1967, Tamaulipas), Gulf Cartel boss of Matamoros and founder of the Zetas; captured 2003, extradited 2007, sentenced to 25 US years in 2010, released and deported to Mexico in December 2024.
Oswald Balzer
Oswald Marian Balzer (1858–1933) was a Polish historian of law, the first professor of the chair of Polish legal history at the University of Lwów from 1887.
Otfried Nippold
Otfried Nippold (1864–1938) was a German-Swiss jurist and peace campaigner, a professor of international law at Bern who presided over the Saar's League-administered supreme courts from 1920 to 1934.