9,901 articles
Separate but equal
Separate but equal was the U.S. legal doctrine from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) holding that racially segregated facilities satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment if equal; overturned by Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Separation agreement
A separation agreement is a voluntary private contract between spouses, made during formal separation or before divorce, governing property division, maintenance, child support, and arrangements for children; it does not end the marriage.
Separation period (divorce)
A separation period in divorce law is a required interval of living apart or a waiting period that must pass before a divorce can be granted.
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund is a no-fault program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice to compensate those harmed by the 9/11 attacks.
Serbian mafia
Serbian mafia: organized crime groups based in Serbia, also called Balkan cartel groups, dominant in cocaine and arms trafficking, hierarchically structured, with documented state security ties since the 1990s Yugoslav collapse.
Serena R. Murillo
Serena R. Murillo, born 1970 in Pomona, California, is a United States district judge for the Central District of California, appointed by President Biden in 2025.
Seretse Khama
Seretse Khama (1921–1980), Bangwato chieftain-designate exiled by Britain over his 1948 marriage to Ruth Williams; founded the Bechuanaland Democratic Party and served as Botswana's first President, 1966–1980.
Sergei Magnitsky
Sergei Magnitsky (Сергей Магнитский), Russian lawyer and auditor for Hermitage Capital who exposed a $230 million tax refund fraud, died in Moscow pre-trial detention in 2009; his death inspired the 2012 Magnitsky Act and global human rights sanctions laws.
Sergei Mavrodi (Сергей Пантелеевич Мавроди)
Sergei Mavrodi (Сергей Пантелеевич Мавроди), founder of the MMM pyramid scheme, defrauded millions of Russians in 1994, served in the Duma, was convicted of fraud in 2007, relaunched MMM-2011 and Bitcoin-based schemes, and died in 2018.
Sergio Moro
Sergio Fernando Moro (born 1972, Maringá) is a Brazilian senator for Paraná, former Lava Jato (Car Wash) judge who convicted Lula in 2017, and Bolsonaro's justice minister 2019-2020; the STF ruled him partial in 2021.
Sergio Osmeña
Sergio Osmeña, also known as Sergio Osmeña Sr., was a Filipino statesman, first Speaker of the Philippine Assembly, and second president of the Philippine Commonwealth from 1944 to 1946.
Serhiy Tkach
Serhiy Tkach (Сергій Ткач, 1952–2018), the "Polohy maniac", was a former Soviet police criminalist who raped and murdered girls and young women across Ukraine from 1980 to 2005; convicted of 37 murders, sentenced to life, while nine innocent people were wrongly convicted for his crimes.
Serial (podcast)
Serial is an American investigative podcast from This American Life, created by Julie Snyder, Ira Glass, and host Sarah Koenig. Season One (2014), on the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee and Adnan Syed's conviction, was the first podcast to reach five million downloads and to win a Peabody Award.
Serial killer
Serial killer: a person who unlawfully kills two or more victims in separate events, per the FBI's 2005 definition. Formerly required three or more killings with a cooling-off period; term coined amid 1970s FBI research; rare, under one percent of murders.
Servant Girl Annihilator
Servant Girl Annihilator, also called the Austin Axe Murderer, is the unidentified serial killer who murdered eight people in Austin, Texas, between December 1884 and Christmas Eve 1885, predating Jack the Ripper; the case was never solved.
Service of process
Service of process is the formal delivery of court documents, such as a summons and complaint, to notify a party of legal proceedings. Covers FRCP Rule 4, Mullane due process notice, the 1965 Hague Service Convention, comparative traditions, and electronic service rules.
Setagaya family murder
Unsolved December 30–31, 2000 quadruple murder of the Miyazawa family in Kamisoshigaya, Setagaya, Tokyo; the killer left DNA, fingerprints, clothing and a broken sashimi knife, but no match; no statute of limitations since 2010.
Seth R. Aframe
Seth R. Aframe, born 1974, is an American jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the First Circuit since 2024, after nearly two decades as a federal prosecutor.
Settlement (litigation)
Settlement (litigation): negotiated resolution of a legal claim without adjudicated judgment, also called out-of-court settlement. Most civil cases end this way; US federal rates run 60-70%, shaped by information, costs, Rule 68, and Rule 408.
Seven Laws of Noah (שבע מצוות בני נח)
Seven Laws of Noah (Sheva Mitzvot B'nei Noach, Noahide laws): seven Talmudic commandments (Sanhedrin 56a) that rabbinic tradition binds on all non-Jews, covering courts, blasphemy, idolatry, sexual relations, murder, theft, and living-animal flesh, with a modern Noahide movement.
Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution
Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: part of the Bill of Rights (1791) preserving civil jury trial in federal common-law suits over $20 and barring fact reexamination; not incorporated against states, reshaped by SEC v. Jarkesy (2024).
Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India
Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India, under Article 246, divides legislative power via the Union List, State List, and Concurrent List, adapted from the Government of India Act 1935 and reshaped by the 42nd and 101st Amendments.
Severance package
Severance package: payments and benefits given when employment ends, also called redundancy or termination pay. Covers statutory scales (Australia, Thailand, Ontario), US at-will voluntariness, OWBPA waiver rules, and economic rationale.
Sex and the law
Sex and the law: the legal regulation of sexual conduct, consent, expression, and health across criminal, family, and communications law, covering consent standards, sexual offences, sex work, decriminalization, and 2025 deepfake and age-verification laws.
Sex differences in crime
Sex differences in crime: the universal pattern that women offend less than men, with men about 90% of US murderers and 98.4% of Albanian prisoners; covers socialization, feminist, and biosocial explanations.
Sex offender
Sex offender: a person convicted of a sex offense, defined for U.S. federal purposes by SORNA (34 U.S.C. 20901). Covers registries from the 1994 Wetterling Act and 1996 Megan's Law to the 2006 Adam Walsh Act, recidivism rates, risk assessment tools, and treatment research.
Sex offender registries in the United States
Sex offender registries in the United States: state and federal databases of convicted sex offenders, established federally by the Jacob Wetterling Act (1994), Megan's Law (1996), and SORNA (2006). Research shows little effect on recidivism.
Sex offender registry
Sex offender registry: government databases of people convicted of designated sex offenses, also called SORN systems. U.S. framework runs from the 1994 Wetterling Act and Megan's Law to SORNA (Adam Walsh Act, 2006), with tiered registration durations and public websites.
Sex tourism
Sex tourism is travel planned primarily for purchasing sexual services, often to destinations with permissive sex work laws or enforcement. Rooted in colonialism and military presence; distinct from, though overlapping with, sex trafficking; child sex tourism is criminalized extraterritorially.
Sex trafficking
Sex trafficking: forcing someone into commercial sex through coercion, fraud, or abuse of vulnerability, as defined by the 2000 Palermo Protocol; distinct from consensual sex work, though conflation, unreliable online-ad indicators, and weak prevalence data complicate identification.