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Law and justice

9,901 articles

Bloody Sunday Inquiry

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, or Saville Report, was a 1998 tribunal chaired by Lord Saville. It concluded that British soldiers fired first on unarmed civilians in Londonderry in 1972.

Blowing from a gun

Blowing from a gun was a method of execution in which the condemned was tied to a cannon's front and killed by a blank charge. A Mughal punishment for mutiny, adopted by the British in India and used in Persia and Afghanistan into the twentieth century.

Blue law

Blue laws, also called Sunday Closing Laws or Lord's Day Acts, are US state statutes restricting Sunday commerce such as alcohol sales, car dealerships, and hunting; upheld as secular rest laws in McGowan v. Maryland (1961) and still enforced in many states.

Blue Shield International

Blue Shield International (BSI) is the international arm of the Blue Shield, an NGO founded in 1996 by ICA, ICOM, ICOMOS, and IFLA to protect cultural heritage in armed conflict and disasters, named for the 1954 Hague Convention's blue shield emblem, with ICRC, UNESCO, and NATO partnerships.

Blue wall of silence

Blue wall of silence, also called the blue code or code of silence: the informal police norm against reporting fellow officers' misconduct, documented from Westley's surveys to the Mollen Commission, with cross-national variation and reporting channels.

Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction

The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) was a statutory board of India established in 1987. It determined whether companies were sick and sanctioned revival schemes.

Board of directors

Board of directors: the elected governing body that directs and oversees a corporation while delegating daily management to the CEO. Covers fiduciary duties of care and loyalty, the business judgment rule, board independence and committee structures, and the institution's medieval merchant-guild origins.

Bob Barr

Bob Barr (Robert Laurence Barr Jr., born 1948) is an American attorney, former Republican U.S. Representative from Georgia's 7th District (1995-2003), Clinton impeachment manager, and the Libertarian Party's 2008 presidential nominee.

Bobbie Cheema-Grubb

Dame Bobbie Cheema-Grubb DBE, UK High Court (King's Bench Division) judge; first Asian woman High Court judge (November 2015); former 2 Hare Court barrister, Treasury Counsel, QC 2013, Finsbury Park case judge.

Bobby Baccalieri

Bobby Baccalieri, Robert 'Bobby Bacala' Baccalieri Jr., is a fictional Sopranos character played by Steve Schirripa: Junior's caretaker who marries Janice Soprano, becomes underboss, and is killed in a train store in 'The Blue Comet.'

Bobby Beausoleil

Bobby Beausoleil (Robert Kenneth Beausoleil, born 1947) is an American musician and convicted Manson Family associate serving a life sentence since 1970 for the 1969 murder of Gary Hinman; his death sentence was commuted in 1972, and he remains at California Medical Facility, Vacaville, repeatedly denied parole. Distinct from BeauSoleil the Cajun band and the French commune Beausoleil.

Bobby Cummines

Bobby Cummines (Robert Cummines, 1951–2026), British reformed armed robber, Parkhurst Category A prisoner, and chief executive of the ex-offenders' charity Unlock; OBE 2011, adviser to Commons committees and the Zahid Mubarek inquiry.

Bobby E. Shepherd

Bobby E. Shepherd, born 1951, is an American judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006.

Bobby Joe Long

Bobby Joe Long (Robert Joe Long), the 'Classified Ad Rapist,' murdered at least 10 women in the Tampa Bay area in 1984, was caught after kidnapping Lisa McVey, pleaded guilty to eight murders, and was executed in Florida in 2019.

Bobby R. Baldock

Bobby R. Baldock, born Bobby Ray Baldock, is an American jurist serving as a senior judge of the Tenth Circuit since 2001, appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1985.

Body snatching

Body snatching: secret removal of corpses from graves for sale to medical schools, also called resurrectionism. Flourished 17th–early 19th centuries, ended in Britain by the 1832 Anatomy Act after Burke and Hare.

Boiler room (business)

A boiler room, also called a boiler room scam, is a fraud operation using high-pressure phone sales to unload worthless or overpriced shares on investors.

Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee

Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee is a 1957 English High Court medical negligence ruling by McNair J that established the Bolam test for professional standards.

Bolivian Constitution of 1938

The Bolivian Constitution of 1938 (Constitución Política del Estado de 1938) was Bolivia's twelfth constitution and the first to recognize social rights, promulgated by President Germán Busch.

Bolivian Constitution of 1967

The Bolivian Constitution of 1967 (Constitución Política del Estado de 1967) was Bolivia's fundamental law, promulgated under General René Barrientos and in force until the 2009 Constitution replaced it.

Bolivian Constitution of 2009

The Bolivian Constitution of 2009 is Bolivia's fundamental law, approved by referendum and promulgated by Evo Morales, renaming the country the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

Bolivian constitutional reform of 1994

The Bolivian constitutional reform of 1994, enacted as Law 1585 under President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, redefined Bolivia as a multiethnic, pluricultural republic and recognized indigenous rights.

Bombay High Court (बॉम्बे उच्च न्यायालय)

Bombay High Court (बॉम्बे उच्च न्यायालय), the chartered High Court of Bombay, inaugurated 14 August 1862; serves Maharashtra, Goa, Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli with benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad, and Panaji.

Bombings in Sweden

Bombings in Sweden (sprängningar): gang-linked explosive attacks against homes and vehicles, prosecuted as publicly dangerous destruction; record 159 detonations in 2025, falling to 76 in January–September 2026.

Bona fide purchaser

A bona fide purchaser, also known as Equity's darling, is a buyer who acquires property for value and good faith without notice of title defects.

Bonanno crime family

Bonanno crime family: one of New York's five La Cosa Nostra families, founded under Maranzano and led by Joseph Bonanno; marked by the Donnie Brasco infiltration, Pizza Connection trial, and boss Joseph Massino's 2003 cooperation.

Bond lease

Bond lease covers two instruments: a lease bond, a surety bond guaranteeing a tenant's lease performance in place of a cash deposit (premiums 1–5% yearly), and the bond lease of credit tenant finance, an absolute net lease treated as a bond for Schedule D reporting.

Bonne of Bourbon

Bonne of Bourbon (Bonne de Bourbon, 1341–1403), Bourbon princess, daughter of Pierre I and Isabelle de Valois; married Amédée VI of Savoy by the 1355 Treaty of Paris and governed Savoy as regent for about thirty years.

Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde were the American outlaw couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who committed robbery and murder across the South and Southwest until police killed them in 1934.

Bonnie and Clyde (film)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Arthur Penn's crime drama starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the Depression-era outlaws, written by David Newman and Robert Benton for Warner Bros. Initially panned, it became the landmark New Hollywood film, earning 10 Oscar nominations and 1992 National Film Registry selection.