9,901 articles
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA), also called the Federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended in 1972, is the principal US water pollution law, built on NPDES point-source permits, Section 404 dredge-and-fill permits, and the contested 'waters of the United States' jurisdiction narrowed by Sackett v. EPA (2023).
Clean-break settlement and capitalization of maintenance
Clean-break settlement (England and Wales, MCA 1973 s.25A): final divorce financial settlement dismissing all spousal claims, typically via a Duxbury-calculated lump sum capitalizing maintenance; Duxbury Working Party reformed assumptions in November 2024.
Clear and present danger
Clear and present danger is a United States First Amendment doctrine, articulated by Justice Holmes Jr. in Schenck v. United States in 1919. It limits protected speech when threatening substantive evils.
Clem Grogan
Steve "Clem" Grogan, Manson Family member and Spahn Ranch hand, convicted of murdering Donald "Shorty" Shea in 1969; death sentence reduced to life in 1971, paroled November 1985 after helping locate Shea's body.
Clementine Barnabet
Clementine Barnabet (born c. 1894) was an Afro-Creole Louisiana woman convicted in 1912 for "Voodoo" ax murders of Black families; confessions conflicted with the murder timeline, and her guilt is debated.
Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States
Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States (Scott S. Harris, current Clerk): the Court's statutory administrative officer under 28 U.S.C. § 671, created by the Judiciary Act of 1789, managing dockets, filings, and Supreme Court Bar admissions, distinct from justices' law clerks.
Clerkenwell crime syndicate
The Clerkenwell crime syndicate, also called the Adams Family or A-Team, is an alleged London organised crime group based in Islington and Clerkenwell, led by brothers Terry, Patsy and Tommy Adams, active from the 1980s in extortion, armed robbery, drug trafficking, and money laundering.
Cleveland crime family
The Cleveland crime family, also called the Porrello crime family or Cleveland mafia, is an American Mafia organization based in Cleveland, Ohio, arising from the Mayfield Road Mob.
Cleveland Torso Murderer
The Cleveland Torso Murderer, or Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was an unidentified serial killer who decapitated and dismembered 12–13 people in Cleveland, Ohio, 1934–1938. Only Edward Andrassy, Flo Polillo, and Rose Wallace were identified; Eliot Ness led the unsolved investigation.
Click fraud
Click fraud, also called click spam, is the deceptive clicking of pay-per-click ads, either to inflate a publisher's ad revenue or to exhaust a competitor's advertising budget.
Clifford Chance
Clifford Chance LLP, a Magic Circle multinational law firm formed by the 1987 Clifford Turner–Coward Chance merger, reports FY2026 record revenue of £2.6 billion and 124 Band 1 Chambers Global 2025 rankings.
Clifford Olson
Clifford Robert Olson Jr., known as the Beast of British Columbia, was a Canadian serial killer who murdered 11 children in British Columbia in 1980 and 1981.
Clifton L. Corker
Clifton Leland Corker is an American jurist serving as a United States district judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee since 2019, appointed by President Donald Trump.
Clinton Correctional Facility
Clinton Correctional Facility (Clinton Prison), maximum-security men's prison in Dannemora, New York, founded 1845 as an iron-mining prison; largest and third oldest DOCCS facility, nicknamed Little Siberia, site of the 2015 Matt-Sweat escape.
Clinton v. Jones
Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997), the Supreme Court case also called Jones v. Clinton: unanimous holding that a sitting President has no temporary immunity from federal civil suits for unofficial acts predating office, arising from Paula Jones's harassment claim.
Closed adoption
Closed adoption: adoption with no contact or identifying information exchanged between birth and adoptive parents, historically paired with sealed records in the US; largely supplanted since the 1990s by open adoption.
Closed Chambers
Closed Chambers, Edward Lazarus's 1998 Times Books account by a former Harry Blackmun clerk of the 1988-89 Rehnquist Court's factional strife over death penalty, race, and abortion cases, and its clerk confidentiality controversy.
Closer Economic Relations
Closer Economic Relations (CER, ANZCERTA): the Australia–New Zealand free trade agreement signed at Canberra on 28 March 1983 and in force since 1 January 1983, creating a WTO-consistent free trade area covering goods, services, and investment, supplemented by over 80 arrangements.
Clutter family murders
Clutter family murders: November 15, 1959 quadruple homicide of Herbert Clutter's family in Holcomb, Kansas, by ex-convicts Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, basis of Capote's In Cold Blood.
CM/ECF
CM/ECF (Case Management/Electronic Case Files) is the US federal judiciary's case management and electronic filing system, used by all federal courts except the Supreme Court; PACER is its separate fee-based public-access viewing side.
Cochise County Cowboys
The Cochise County Cowboys were loosely organized outlaws active in Pima and Cochise County, Arizona Territory, in the 1880s, known for cattle theft and their feud with the Earp brothers.
Cod Wars
The Cod Wars: three disputes (1958-61, 1972-73, 1975-76) between Iceland and the UK over Iceland's expanding exclusive fishery zone, from 4 to 200 nautical miles, resolved in Iceland's favor via NATO-related threats.
Code Noir
The Code Noir is the March 1685 edict of Louis XIV, drafted under Colbert, that regulated slavery in the French Caribbean colonies; also edicts of 1723-1724 for Réunion, Mauritius, and Louisiana. It classified enslaved people as movable property and was formally repealed only in 2026.
Code of Civil Procedure (India)
The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), Act V of 1908, is India's principal statute on civil court procedure, in force since 1 January 1909, succeeding the codes of 1859, 1877, and 1882.
Code of Criminal Procedure (India)
The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC), Act No. 2 of 1974, was India's principal criminal procedure statute, in force from 1 April 1974 until repealed by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, effective 1 July 2024.
Code of Hammurabi
The Code of Hammurabi, or Laws of Hammurabi, is a Babylonian law code of 282 judgments from about 1750 BCE, known for "an eye for an eye."
Code of Ur-Nammu
Code of Ur-Nammu, oldest surviving written law code, Sumerian, c. 2100-2050 BCE, Third Dynasty of Ur, attributed to Ur-Nammu or Shulgi, 57 laws, silver fines instead of lex talionis, discovered at Nippur 1948, translated by Kramer 1952.
Code of Vakhtang VI
The Code of Vakhtang VI (ვახტანგ VI-ის სამართლის წიგნი) is a collection of Georgian laws compiled in 1705–08, combining old Georgian and foreign law books with Vakhtang's own new law.
Code Rural (Haiti)
The Code Rural was an 1826 Haitian law issued under President Jean-Pierre Boyer that required rural cultivators to contract themselves to landowners and punished refusal to work as vagabondage.
Codicil (will)
Codicil (will), from Latin codicillus: a separate legal document supplementing, altering, or revoking a will's contents. Requires the same execution formalities as a will; Roman in origin, long used to amend testaments.