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Reception of international law in national legal systems (comparative models)
Reception of international law is the set of constitutional rules turning treaties and custom into domestically enforceable norms, comparing US self-execution, UK dualism, continental clauses, and mixed systems.
Recess appointment
Recess appointment: temporary U.S. presidential appointment under Article II, Section 2, Clause 3 made without Senate confirmation during a Senate recess, expiring at the next session's end; limited by NLRB v. Noel Canning (2014) to recesses of at least 10 days without pro forma sessions.
Recidivism
Recidivism, also called reoffending or repeat offense, is when a person previously involved in the criminal justice system offends again, measured by new arrests, convictions, or imprisonment.
Reciprocity Treaty of 1875
Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, US-Hawaii Treaty of Reciprocity: bilateral commercial reciprocity pact signed January 30, 1875 by Hamilton Fish and Elisha H. Allen, admitting Hawaiian sugar duty-free into the US, fueling a sugar boom and Pearl Harbor's 1887 cession.
Recklessness (law)
Recklessness (law): a fault standard of consciously disregarding a substantial, unjustifiable risk, sitting between knowledge and negligence in the Model Penal Code hierarchy; in England and Wales defined subjectively since R v G (2003), and in tort an interstitial standard marking the boundary of malice.
Reckoning (TV series)
Reckoning (2019-2020) is a 10-episode Australian psychological thriller by David Hubbard and David Eick for Playmaker/Sony Pictures Television, starring Aden Young and Sam Trammell, set in California, released on Netflix May 1, 2020; ended after one season.
Recognition of foreign adoption orders
Recognition of foreign adoption orders is the set of private-international-law rules by which one state gives legal effect to an adoption finalized in another, so the parent-child relationship survives the border.
Recognition of foreign divorces
Recognition of foreign divorces is the body of rules by which a state gives legal effect to a divorce granted by another country's courts or authorities.
Recognition of foreign divorces in Commonwealth jurisdictions
Recognition of foreign divorces in Commonwealth jurisdictions is how Commonwealth courts treat divorces granted abroad, mainly through domicile, residence tests, and the 1970 Hague Convention.
Recognition of talaq in secular courts
Recognition of talaq in secular courts is the process by which civil judiciaries decide whether a unilateral Islamic divorce pronounced abroad dissolved a marriage for their own law.
Recognizance
Recognizance: a recorded court obligation in Anglo-American law binding a person (recognizor) to perform an act, usually to appear in court, on pain of a money forfeiture; basis of bail and release on one's own recognizance.
Reconstruction Amendments
The Reconstruction Amendments are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments (1865-1870), also called the Civil War Amendments, which abolished slavery, established birthright citizenship with due process and equal protection, and barred racial voting discrimination.
Recopilación de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias
The Recopilación de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias, or Laws of the Indies, is the 1680 codification of Spanish legislation for its American territories.
Recorder of London
Recorder of London: senior judge of the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) and ex-officio City of London alderman, distinct from ordinary part-time recorders; elected by the Court of Aldermen and appointed by the Sovereign.
Recy Taylor
Recy Taylor (1919–2017), born Recy Corbitt, was an Alabama sharecropper gang-raped by white men in September 1944; Rosa Parks investigated for the NAACP, two grand juries refused to indict, and Alabama apologized in 2011.
Red flag law
A red flag law, also called an extreme risk law, is a United States state law allowing courts to temporarily bar dangerous people from possessing firearms.
Red Onion State Prison
Red Onion State Prison: level V/VI supermax prison in Pound, Wise County, Virginia, opened 1998 under Governor Allen as a 1,200-bed twin of Wallens Ridge; subject of solitary-confinement litigation and 2023 restorative housing law.
Red-light district
Red-light district: an urban area where prostitution and sex-related businesses are concentrated and visible, formal tolerance zones or informal clusters; examples include Amsterdam's De Wallen, Soho, and Leeds' managed zone.
Reed C. O'Connor
Reed C. O'Connor, born Reed Charles O'Connor in 1965, is an American jurist serving as a United States district judge for the Northern District of Texas since 2007.
Reena Raggi
Reena Raggi, born 1951, is a senior United States circuit judge of the Second Circuit, appointed by George W. Bush in 2002 after serving as a district judge.
Reeva Steenkamp
Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp (1987-2013), South African model, law graduate, and reality TV star killed by Oscar Pistorius on 14 February 2013; Pistorius was convicted of murder and paroled in January 2024.
Reference Re Secession of Quebec
Reference Re Secession of Quebec, [1998] 2 SCR 217, is the Supreme Court of Canada's unanimous advisory opinion holding unilateral Quebec secession illegal but imposing a duty to negotiate after a clear majority on a clear question; basis of the 2000 Clarity Act.
Referendary court
The referendary court (sąd referendarski) was a royal dominial court of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that heard peasants' complaints against starostas and leaseholders, sitting from the 1580s until 1794.
Reform of the United Nations Security Council
Security Council reform: the UN General Assembly effort since 1993 to change the Council's membership, regional representation, and P5 veto; IGN negotiations since 2009 remain deadlocked between G4, African Group, and Uniting for Consensus.
Reform school
Reform school, also called training school or juvenile reformatory, a residential institution for court-committed youth; rooted in 1825 houses of refuge and parens patriae, largely replaced by juvenile courts, community programs, and secure children's homes.
Refugee
Refugee: a person outside their country owing to well-founded fear of persecution under the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol. 41.6 million refugees at end-2025; core principle non-refoulement; distinct from asylum-seekers and IDPs.
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978): Supreme Court case striking down UC Davis medical school's 16-seat minority set-aside while allowing race as a plus factor; Powell's solo opinion governed until SFFA (2023).
Reggie Walton
Reggie B. Walton (born 1949), senior U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., former D.C. Superior Court judge, presiding judge of the FISA court 2013-2014, and the judge in the Scooter Libby perjury trial.
Regina M. Rodriguez
Regina M. Rodriguez, born 1963, is an American jurist serving as a United States district judge in Colorado since 2021, appointed by President Biden and confirmed 72 to 28.
Regional and special custom in international law
Regional and special custom, also called particular custom, is customary international law that binds only a limited number of states, sometimes only two, rather than all states.