9,901 articles
Otis D. Wright II
Otis D. Wright II is an American jurist serving as a United States district judge for the Central District of California since 2007, appointed by President George W. Bush.
Ottawa Treaty
The Ottawa Treaty (Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, APMBC) is a 1997 treaty banning anti-personnel landmines, in force 1 March 1999, with 162 parties; major non-parties include the US, Russia, and China, and several European states withdrew in 2025–2026.
Ottis Toole
Ottis Elwood Toole (1947–1996), Florida drifter and serial killer, partner of Henry Lee Lucas; convicted of six murders, confessed and recanted to hundreds including the 1981 Adam Walsh killing, named his killer in 2008.
Otto Morales Benítez
Otto Morales Benítez (1920–2015) was a Colombian lawyer, essayist, historian, and Liberal politician who served as Minister of Labor and Minister of Agriculture under Alberto Lleras Camargo.
Ottoman–Venetian peace treaty (1419)
The Ottoman–Venetian peace treaty of 1419, concluded at Adrianople on 6 November 1419 between Sultan Mehmed I and Venice, ended their war, confirmed Venetian holdings in the Aegean and Balkans, and governed trade by sea.
Outer Space Treaty
The Outer Space Treaty (1967), formally the Treaty on Principles Governing Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, is the foundation of international space law: no WMD in orbit, no national appropriation, states responsible for private space activities.
Outlaw
Outlaw: a person formally placed outside the protection of the law by court order, chiefly in medieval English law (utlah, waiver for women). Punishment for evading justice; loss of legal rights, wolf's-head lore, Magna Carta clause 39.
Overruled and superseded Supreme Court of Canada decisions
A list of Supreme Court of Canada decisions overruled or superseded by later panels, over 500 in total, covering cases like Rodriguez, the labor trilogy, and the Bedford framework.
Overview of gun laws by nation
Overview of gun laws by nation: how countries regulate civilian firearms. Civilians hold ~650 million guns; rules range from Japan's near-total ban to permissive US licensing, with most nations banning fully automatic weapons.
Ovidio Guzmán López
Ovidio Guzmán López, alias El Ratón, son of El Chapo and alleged Chapitos leader of the Sinaloa Cartel; arrested in Culiacán 2019 and 2023, extradited to the US in 2023, pleaded guilty in 2025 and agreed to cooperate.
Owen Roberts
Owen Josephus Roberts (1875–1955), U.S. Supreme Court associate justice 1930–1945, Teapot Dome special prosecutor, swing vote in West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, Pearl Harbor commission chairman, later Penn Law dean.
Owens v Owens
Owens v Owens [2018] UKSC 41 was a UK Supreme Court case in which Tini Owens was refused a divorce from Hugh Owens in 2018.
Ownership
Ownership, in law and philosophy, is the legal right to use, possess, and give away a thing, tangible or intangible; usually analyzed as a bundle of rights (possession, control, enjoyment, exclusion, disposition) with exclusion the key stick, contrasted across common law and civil law.
Owney Madden
Owney Madden (Owen Vincent Madden, 1891-1965), English-born Hell's Kitchen Gopher Gang leader, Prohibition bootlegger, Cotton Club owner, boxing fixer of Primo Carnera, and later Hot Springs, Arkansas gambling boss.
Oyez
Oyez (OH-yay), from Anglo-Norman for "hear ye", is the thrice-repeated cry opening US Supreme Court sessions; it also names the Oyez Project, the multimedia Supreme Court audio archive.
Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya
Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, FCIArb (born 1967), Nigerian lawyer and arbitrator, founding partner of ALP NG & Co; 33rd Nigerian Bar Association president, elected July 2026, second woman and first elected female to lead the NBA.
P. K. Castel
P. Kevin Castel is an American jurist serving as a senior United States district judge of the Southern District of New York, appointed by George W. Bush in 2003.
P. N. Kaul
P. N. Kaul (Prem Nath Kaul, 1916, Baramulla) was an Indian Army officer and Judge Advocate who fought in the 1947 Kashmir tribal invasion, served as Consul-General in Lhasa (1959), and directed the Indian Cooperation Mission in Nepal (1966).
P. V. Narasimha Rao (పాములపర్తి వెంకట నరసింహారావు)
P. V. Narasimha Rao (పాములపర్తి వెంకట నరసింహారావు), 1921–2004, ninth Prime Minister of India (1991–96), Congress leader who launched the 1991 economic liberalization with Manmohan Singh; polyglot, novelist, posthumous Bharat Ratna (2024).
P5+1
P5+1: China, France, Germany, Russia, UK, and US (UNSC P5 plus Germany), the six-power grouping that negotiated Iran's nuclear program, produced the 2015 JCPOA, and later operated as P4+1/E3/EU+2 after the 2018 US withdrawal.
Pablo Acosta Villarreal
Pablo Acosta Villarreal, El Zorro de Ojinaga (1937–1987), Mexican drug lord who controlled a 250-mile stretch of the Chihuahua-Texas border, smuggled about 60 tons of cocaine yearly, mentored Amado Carrillo Fuentes, and was killed in 1987; his organization became the Juárez cartel.
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar, leader of Colombia's Medellín Cartel, dominated the 1980s cocaine trade with the Cali cartel, controlled 80% of world production in 1989, was elected to Congress, and was killed by police in Medellín on 2 December 1993.
PACER (law)
PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) is the US federal judiciary's fee-based online service for appellate, district, and bankruptcy court records, launched in 1988, charging $0.10 per page with a $30 quarterly waiver, rising to $0.12 on January 1, 2027.
Pact of Steel
The Pact of Steel (Stahlpakt, Patto d'Acciaio), formally the Pact of Friendship and Alliance, was the German-Italian military alliance signed in Berlin on May 22, 1939, distinct from the 1936 Anti-Comintern Pact and the 1940 Tripartite Pact.
Pacta sunt servanda
Pacta sunt servanda, Latin for "agreements must be kept," is the principle that every treaty in force binds its parties and must be performed in good faith.
Pacta tertiis nec nocent nec prosunt
Pacta tertiis nec nocent nec prosunt is the treaty-law rule that treaties bind only consenting States, codified in Article 34 of the 1969 Vienna Convention.
Palatine
Palatine: a title for palace-derived officials, from Latin palatinus. Covers papal judices palatini, German Pfalzgraf counts palatine and elector palatine, Hungarian nádor, Polish governors, and English palatinates like Durham.
Palauan nuclear-free constitution
The Palauan nuclear-free constitution is Palau's 1979 constitution, the world's first nuclear-free constitutional provision, banning nuclear weapons and power plants unless approved by 75 percent of voters.
Palestine exception
Palestine exception: term coined by Michael Ratner (2013) for censorship and punishment of pro-Palestinian advocacy, chiefly on US campuses, documented by Palestine Legal and CCR (2015) and intensified after October 2023.
Palestinian genocide accusation
Palestinian genocide accusation: claims since October 2023 that Israel's Gaza campaign constitutes genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention; ICJ case South Africa v. Israel, ICC warrants, and findings by Amnesty, HRW, and UN bodies, contested by Israel.