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Civil defense
Civil defense (civil defence, civil protection) is organized civilian protection against attack, sabotage, and disaster: warning, shelters, evacuation, rescue. Defined by 15 tasks in Geneva Protocol I; Cold War US fallout shelter program; now merging with emergency management and being rebuilt in Europe.
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the public, non-violent breach of law, done conscientiously to prompt changes in laws or policy, a term coined by Henry David Thoreau in 1849.
Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)
Civil Disobedience (Thoreau), originally "Resistance to Civil Government" (1849), is Henry David Thoreau's essay arguing individual conscience overrides the state, written after his 1846 poll-tax jailing and later influential on Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Civil Disobedience movement
The Civil Disobedience movement (सविनय अवज्ञा आंदोलन) was a nonviolent campaign against British rule in India, launched by Gandhi in 1930 with the Salt March to Dandi.
Civil forfeiture in the United States
Civil forfeiture in the United States lets the government seize property in rem without a criminal conviction, under a preponderance standard, with proceeds often flowing to law enforcement via equitable sharing.
Civil Guard (Spain)
The Civil Guard (Guardia Civil, Benemérita), founded 1844 by the Duke of Ahumada under Isabella II, is Spain's military-nature gendarmerie force policing rural areas, traffic, borders and fiscal protection, absorbing the Carabineros in 1940 and numbering over 77,000 personnel.
Civil law (common law)
Civil law (common law): the code-based legal tradition derived from Roman law and Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis, contrasted with English-derived common law; codes over precedent, Napoleonic Code 1804, BGB 1900, dominant in Europe and former colonies.
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law (legal system), also called continental or Romano-Germanic law, is a legal system derived from Roman law and based on codified statutes, covering about 60% of the world, distinct from common law's reliance on judicial precedent.
Civil liberties
Civil liberties: constitutional and treaty freedoms limiting government power, distinct from civil rights requiring equal treatment; grounded in the Bill of Rights, Fourteenth Amendment incorporation, and the ICCPR, with measured global declines.
Civil marriage
Civil marriage: marriage under state law, not religious authority. Also called civil wedding; related to marriage registry, Marriage Act 1836. Distinguished from religious marriage and civil partnership by state registration and its legal consequences.
Civil Partnership Act 2004
Civil Partnership Act 2004 (c. 33), UK statute assented 18 November 2004 and in force 5 December 2005, created civil partnership for same-sex couples with rights parallel to marriage; extended to opposite-sex couples from 2 December 2019 after Steinfeld and Keidan.
Civil partnership in the United Kingdom
Civil partnership in the UK is a legal relationship created by the Civil Partnership Act 2004, originally for same-sex couples and extended to opposite-sex couples in 2019; formed by signing a document, it gives rights close to marriage while remaining a separate legal regime.
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Civil Rights Act of 1866, enacted April 9, 1866 over President Andrew Johnson's veto; first major U.S. law passed over a veto. Declared birthright citizenship and equal contract, court, and property rights; became template for the Fourteenth Amendment; survives as 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981-1982.
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875, also called the Sumner civil rights bill, was a Reconstruction-era federal law banning racial discrimination in public accommodations and juries, struck down by the Supreme Court in the 1883 Civil Rights Cases.
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Civil Rights Act of 1957 (P.L. 85-315), first federal civil rights law since 1875; created the DOJ Civil Rights Division and a temporary Commission on Civil Rights and authorized voting-rights injunctions, though jury-trial compromises left it largely ineffective.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Public Law 88-352), signed by Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, bans discrimination by race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment, public accommodations, and federally funded programs, and created the EEOC under Title VII.
Civil Rights Act of 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, is a U.S. federal statute enacted in 1968 prescribing penalties and prohibiting housing discrimination.
Civil rights movement
The American civil rights movement (mid-1950s to late 1960s) fought Jim Crow segregation through litigation, boycotts, and nonviolent protest, producing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Civil rights movements
Civil rights movements are organized campaigns for equal legal treatment, from the US Black freedom struggle of the 1950s-1960s (Montgomery boycott, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965) to Black Lives Matter and 2025-2026 voting rights protests, with parallel women's, LGBTQI+, and global movements.
Civil service
Civil service: the permanent, merit-recruited body of officials who administer a state across changes of government. Key milestones: Northcote–Trevelyan Report (1854), Pendleton Act (1883), Civil Service Reform Act (1978).
Civil Service (United Kingdom)
The UK Civil Service is the permanent, politically impartial body of officials supporting the UK Government, known as Whitehall. 549,660 staff in 2025; founded on the 1854 Northcote–Trevelyan Report; distinct from the Diplomatic and Northern Ireland services.
Civil Services Examination
The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is UPSC's annual three-stage recruitment test for India's IAS, IFS, IPS and other central services: Prelims (GS plus qualifying CSAT at 33%), Mains, and interview; 933 vacancies and about 5.49 lakh test-takers in 2026.
Civil Services of India
Civil Services of India: the permanent bureaucracy of the Union and states, descended from the colonial Indian Civil Service and reconstituted as the IAS and All India Services in 1947, recruited by UPSC examination and retrained under Mission Karmayogi.
Civil society
Civil society: the voluntary associational sphere between state, market, and family, covering NGOs, movements, unions, and faith groups; definitions, history, scale (USD 2.2 trillion), CIVICUS ratings, and shrinking civic space.
Civil solidarity pact
The civil solidarity pact (pacte civil de solidarité, PACS) is a French civil union contract created by the law of 15 November 1999, open to same- and different-sex couples, registered free at a town hall, with default separation of property and inheritance-tax exemption for the surviving partner.
Civil union
Civil union: a legally registered relationship giving couples some or all marriage rights without marriage; also called registered partnership (partnerschap, PACS). First law Denmark 1989; spread through Europe and US states; largely displaced by same-sex marriage.
Civil war
Civil war: sustained armed conflict within a single state between the government and an organized internal opposition, also called intrastate conflict. Defined by UCDP's 25-battle-death threshold; more prevalent than interstate war since 1945, taking secession and succession forms.
Civil war among the Kalbids of Sicily
The civil war among the Kalbids of Sicily (الحرب الأهلية بين أمراء صقلية الكلبيين) was the succession struggle that divided the island after the last Kalbid emir was assassinated around 1052.
Civil war between Apries and Amasis
The civil war between Apries and Amasis, or Revolt of Amasis, was an Egyptian conflict of 570–567 BC in which the general Amasis overthrew Pharaoh Apries.
Civil war between Someshvara II and Vikramaditya VI
The civil war between Someshvara II and Vikramaditya VI was a Western Chalukya succession struggle in which Vikramaditya overthrew his elder brother and seized the throne in 1076.