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State supreme court justices admitted by reading law
State supreme court justices admitted by reading law studied legal treatises instead of attending law school, exemplified by Georgia's self-taught Chief Justice Logan E. Bleckley.
State supreme courts in the United States
State supreme courts are the highest courts in each U.S. state system and the final arbiters of state law. Justices reach them by partisan or nonpartisan election, gubernatorial or legislative appointment, or merit selection, with rising campaign spending and diversity gaps.
Statelessness
Statelessness: the condition of having no nationality under any state's law, defined by the 1954 Convention. At least 4.5 million people are affected worldwide; causes include discriminatory nationality laws, state succession, and missing birth registration.
States of emergency in India
States of emergency in India are constitutional regimes under Part XVIII (Articles 352, 356, 360): national emergency, President's Rule, and financial emergency. Proclaimed 1962, 1971, 1975; reshaped by the 44th Amendment and the 1994 Bommai judgment.
States parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
The states parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court are the states bound by the 1998 treaty that established the ICC, numbering 125.
States' rights
States' rights: American constitutional and political doctrine that powers not delegated to the federal government belong to the states under the Tenth Amendment, shaping nullification, secession, the New Federalism, and anti-commandeering doctrine.
Stateville Correctional Center
Stateville Correctional Center, opened March 1925 in Crest Hill, Illinois, is a maximum-security men's prison known for its panopticon-style roundhouse, the Northern Reception and Classification Center, and its 2024 closure and $900 million replacement plan.
Status Law
The Status Law is a Hungarian statute of 2001 granting benefits to ethnic Hungarians living in six neighboring states, which provoked disputes with Slovakia and Romania.
Status of Gibraltar
Status of Gibraltar: British Overseas Territory ceded by the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, claimed by Spain; since 15 July 2026 governed by a UK-EU treaty with a customs union, Schengen-style border rules, and a sovereignty-preserving Article 2.
Statute
A statute is a law enacted by a legislative body, also called an act. In common law systems, statutes and judicial decisions are the two primary sources of law.
Statute of Anne
Statute of Anne, also called the Copyright Act 1710 (8 Anne, c. 19), is the British Parliament's first copyright statute, effective 10 April 1710, granting 21-year terms for existing books and 14-year renewable terms for new works, and founding Anglo-American copyright law.
Statute of frauds
A statute of frauds is a law requiring specified kinds of agreements to be evidenced in writing before they can be enforced. The name derives from the English Statute of Frauds, enacted.
Statute of Labourers 1351
Statute of Labourers 1351: English law passed at the first post-plague Parliament, freezing wages at pre-Black Death levels, compelling service, and restricting worker mobility; reinforced the 1349 Ordinance of Labourers and failed to hold wages down.
Statute of limitations
Statute of limitations: law barring claims after a set period after an injury; also called prescription in civil-law systems. Covers accrual, discovery rule, tolling, repose, and history from Roman law and the 1623 Act.
Statute of the Council of Europe
The Statute of the Council of Europe (ETS No. 1), signed in London 5 May 1949 by ten states, is the founding treaty of the Council of Europe, defining its aim, membership, organs, and amendment rules.
Statute of the International Court of Justice
The Statute of the International Court of Justice, annexed to the UN Charter and adopted at San Francisco in 1945, constitutes the ICJ: its organization, judge election, contentious and advisory jurisdiction, Article 38 sources of law, procedure, and amendment.
Statute of Westminster 1931
UK statute of 11 December 1931 (22 & 23 Geo. V c. 4) giving the six Dominions legislative autonomy: ending Colonial Laws Validity Act repugnancy, barring UK Acts without Dominion request and consent, and enacting the 1926 Balfour Declaration.
Statutory interpretation
Statutory interpretation is how courts determine the meaning of statutes, principally through purposivism and textualism, using tools such as ordinary meaning, canons, legislative history, and post-Loper Bright independent judicial judgment.
Statutory nuisance
Statutory nuisance is a list of environmental conditions, like noise and smoke, that local authorities in England and Wales must act against under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Statutory rape
Statutory rape: sexual intercourse with a person below the age of consent, criminal regardless of willingness and usually without force; also called carnal knowledge or corruption of a minor. Strict liability as to age, with close-in-age and marital exceptions varying by jurisdiction.
Stay of execution
Stay of execution: a court order temporarily postponing enforcement of a death sentence, granted under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2251 and 2262, Supreme Court five-vote rule, AEDPA limits, and 2024 emergency-docket practice.
Stefan R. Underhill
Stefan R. Underhill (born 1956) is an American jurist serving as a senior United States district judge of the District of Connecticut, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1999.
Stella Assange
Stella Assange, born Sara Gonzalez Devant and formerly Stella Moris, is a South African-born human rights lawyer who joined Julian Assange's legal team in 2011, married him at Belmarsh prison in 2022, and led the campaign against his US extradition until his June 2024 release.
Stella Nickell
Stella Nickell, Auburn, Washington woman convicted in 1988 under the Federal Anti-Tampering Act for cyanide-lacing Excedrin capsules that killed her husband Bruce Nickell and Sue Snow in a 1986 insurance scheme.
Stéphane Breitwieser
Stéphane Breitwieser, French art thief from Alsace, stole 239 works from about 170 European museums, 1994–2001, never selling any; his mother destroyed much of the loot after his 2001 Lucerne arrest.
Stephanie A. Gallagher
Stephanie A. Gallagher, born 1972, is an American jurist serving as a United States district judge for the District of Maryland since 2019, after eight years as a magistrate judge.
Stephanie Birkitt
Stephanie Anne Birkitt, California and New York attorney (California bar 2011), former personal assistant and recurring on-air 'Vicki' on Late Show with David Letterman, whose diary was used in the 2009 $2 million Halderman extortion plot.
Stephanie D. Davis
Stephanie Dawkins Davis is an American jurist serving as a judge on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals since 2022, appointed by President Biden after serving as a Michigan district judge.
Stephanie D. Thacker
Stephanie D. Thacker, also known as Stephanie Dawn Thacker, is an American jurist serving as a circuit judge on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals since 2012.
Stephanie K. Seymour
Stephanie K. Seymour, born Stephanie Kulp Seymour in 1940, is an American jurist who was the first female judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.