9,901 articles
Vansittart Island
Vansittart Island (Gun-Carriage Island), Furneaux Group, Bass Strait, Tasmania: a partly freehold, partly Crown-leased island with 1830s Aboriginal relocation history, sealers' settlement, the 1912 Farsund shipwreck, and a contested 2000 Aboriginal land transfer proposal.
Varadarajan Mudaliar (வரதராஜன் முதலியார்)
Varadarajan Mudaliar (வரதராஜன் முதலியார்), aka Vardhabhai (1926–1988), a Tuticorin-born Tamil who became Bombay's first underworld don through bootlegging and matka, part of the Karim Lala–Haji Mastan trio; inspiration for Nayakan.
Variation and termination of spousal maintenance
Variation and termination of spousal maintenance are the legal processes by which a court later increases, reduces, suspends, or ends an order for spousal support between former spouses.
Vasily Blokhin (Василий Михайлович Блохин)
Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin (Василий Михайлович Блохин), 1895–1955, Soviet NKVD Major General and chief executioner under Stalin; personally shot about 7,000 Polish officers at Kalinin in 1940 and tens of thousands overall.
VAT identification number
A VAT identification number, also called a VAT number or VATIN, is a unique number identifying a business registered for value added tax, issued by national tax administrations.
Veerappan
Veerappan (Koose Munisamy Veerappan), Indian forest brigand of the Karnataka–Tamil Nadu border forests; sandalwood smuggler, elephant poacher, kidnapper of actor Rajkumar in 2000; killed by the STF in October 2004.
Vehicle leasing
Vehicle leasing, also called car leasing, is paying to use a vehicle for an agreed time and mileage instead of buying it, covering depreciation plus fees.
Vehicular homicide
Vehicular homicide, also called vehicular manslaughter or automobile homicide, is the crime of causing another's death through unlawful, negligent, or reckless vehicle operation, with elements and penalties defined state by state.
Vehmic court
Vehmic court (Vehmgericht, Femgericht) means the medieval secret tribunals of Westphalia, not unrelated Fehm courts elsewhere. Freigraf chairmen and about 30,000 sworn Freischöffen judged capital crimes under Königsbann; peak 14th–15th centuries, last public sitting 1568.
Velma Barfield
Velma Barfield (Margie Velma Barfield, née Bullard, 1932–1984), North Carolina arsenic poisoner who confessed to four murders, was convicted of killing Stuart Taylor, and became the first woman executed in the US since 1962 and the first by lethal injection.
Venustiano Carranza
Venustiano Carranza (1859-1920), Mexican politician and Primer Jefe of the Constitutional Army, overthrew Victoriano Huerta via the Plan de Guadalupe and, as president 1917-1920, convened the Constituent Congress that produced Mexico's 1917 Constitution before being killed at Tlaxcalantongo.
Vera Institute of Justice
Vera Institute of Justice (Vera Foundation): American nonprofit founded 1961 by Herb Sturz and Louis Schweitzer; Manhattan Bail Project led to Bail Reform Act of 1966; works to end mass incarceration and represent immigrants facing deportation.
Verbal abuse
Verbal abuse is language used to harm, demean, intimidate, or control another person, a form of psychological aggression in intimate relationships, families, and workplaces; prevalence estimates vary widely (18% to 92% for childhood verbal abuse) due to inconsistent definitions and measures.
Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center
Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center (VCBC), "The Boat," an 800-bed five-story jail barge moored off Hunts Point, South Bronx, part of the Rikers Island complex; built at Avondale shipyard, arrived 1992, last US prison ship, closed 2023.
Vernon D. Oliver
Vernon D. Oliver, full name Vernon Dion Oliver, is an American jurist serving as a United States district judge for the District of Connecticut since 2023.
Vernon Jordan
Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. (1935–2021), American civil rights lawyer and Washington power broker; led the Voter Education Project and National Urban League, chaired Bill Clinton's 1992 transition team, survived a 1980 white supremacist shooting.
Vernon S. Broderick
Vernon S. Broderick, born 1963, is an American jurist serving as a United States district judge for the Southern District of New York since 2013, nominated by President Barack Obama.
Veronica S. Rossman
Veronica S. Rossman, born in Moscow in 1972, is an American jurist serving as a federal appeals judge on the Tenth Circuit since 2021, appointed by President Biden.
Vespasian Pella
Vespasian V. Pella (1897–1952) was a Romanian jurist and diplomat regarded as a founder of international criminal law and an early advocate of a permanent international criminal court.
Vesting
Vesting (property law): the point at which a future interest becomes fixed in an ascertained holder, also called a vested remainder. Distinguished from contingent remainders by transferability and non-application of the rule against perpetuities.
Veterans Review and Appeal Board
The Veterans Review and Appeal Board (VRAB, Tribunal des anciens combattants révision et appel) is Canada's independent federal tribunal, created in 1995 and based in Charlottetown, that hears two-level reviews and appeals of Veterans Affairs Canada disability benefits decisions.
Veterans' Review Board
The Veterans' Review Board (VRB) is Australia's specialist tribunal, independent of DVA since 1985, conducting free merit reviews of veterans' compensation decisions under the VEA, MRCA and, from April 2025, DRCA, with appeals onward to the Administrative Review Tribunal.
Veto of the Syrian chemical weapons referral resolution
On 22 May 2014 Russia and China vetoed a French-drafted Security Council resolution referring the situation in Syria since 2011 to the International Criminal Court, voting 13 to 2.
Veto use by permanent members of the United Nations Security Council
Veto use by permanent members of the United Nations Security Council covers the veto records of the US, Russia, China, the UK, and France since 1946.
Vetoes of thematic United Nations Security Council draft resolutions
Vetoes of thematic United Nations Security Council draft resolutions occur when a permanent member defeats a general-issue draft, such as Syria cross-border aid or North Korea sanctions.
Vetoes on the Iraq War in the United Nations Security Council
No UN Security Council veto was ever cast on the Iraq War; the 2003 second-resolution draft was withdrawn on 17 March 2003 under France's veto threat.
Vexatious litigation
Vexatious litigation, or predatory litigation, is a legal action brought without good faith to harass a defendant. Courts in common law jurisdictions can declare a person a vexatious litigant.
Vibhu Bakhru
Vibhu Bakhru (born Nagpur, 1966), Indian judge; former chartered accountant and Delhi High Court judge (2013-2025), Acting Chief Justice of Delhi; Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court since 19 July 2025.
Vicarious liability
Vicarious liability, or imputed liability, holds a principal responsible for an agent's actionable conduct under respondeat superior, a strict liability doctrine. Covers the Ellerth rule, close-connection test, akin-to-employment limits, and nondelegable duties.
Vice
Vice (crime): consensual immorality offenses such as gambling, prostitution, narcotics, alcohol, and obscenity; also called victimless crimes, policed by vice squads and increasingly replaced by licensing and sin-tax regulation.