Portal:Law
Introduction

Law is a system of rules that are created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior. It has been defined both as "the Science of Justice" and "the Art of Justice". Law is a system that regulates and ensures that individuals or a community adhere to the will of the state. State-enforced laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or established by judges through precedent, normally in common law jurisdictions. Private individuals can create legally binding contracts, including arbitration agreements that may elect to accept alternative arbitration to the normal court process. The formation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written or tacit, and the rights encoded therein. The law shapes politics, economics, history and society in various ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people.
A general distinction can be made between (a) civil law jurisdictions, in which a legislature or other central body codifies and consolidates their laws, and (b) common law systems, where judge-made precedent is accepted as binding law. Historically, religious laws played a significant role even in settling of secular matters, and is still used in some religious communities. Islamic Sharia law is the world's most widely used religious law, and is used as the primary legal system in some countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Selected article
The LaRouche criminal trials in the mid-1980s stemmed from federal and state investigations into the activities of American political activist Lyndon LaRouche and members of his movement. They were charged with conspiring to commit fraud and soliciting loans they had no intention of repaying. LaRouche and his supporters disputed the charges, claiming the trials were politically motivated.
In 1986, hundreds of state and federal officers raided LaRouche offices in Virginia and Massachusetts. After a short trial in 1988, LaRouche was convicted of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and tax evasion, and was sentenced to prison for fifteen years. He entered prison in 1989 and was paroled five years later. At the same trial, his associates received lesser sentences for mail fraud and conspiracy. In separate state trials in Virginia and New York, 13 associates received terms ranging from one month to 77 years. The Virginia state trials were described as the highest-profile cases that the state Attorney General's office had ever prosecuted. Fourteen states issued injunctions against LaRouche-related organizations. Three LaRouche-related organizations were forced into bankruptcy after failing to pay contempt of court fines.
Defense lawyers filed numerous unsuccessful appeals that challenged the conduct of the grand jury, the contempt fines, the execution of the search warrants and various trial procedures. Following the convictions, the LaRouche movement mounted failed attempts at exoneration. (more...)
Selected biography
Assata Olugbala Shakur (born July 16, 1947, as JoAnne Deborah Byron, married name Chesimard) is an African-American activist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA). Between 1971 and 1973, Shakur was accused of several crimes and made the subject of a multi-state manhunt.
In May 1973 Shakur was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike, during which New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and BLA member Zayd Malik Shakur were killed and Shakur and Trooper James Harper were wounded. Between 1973 and 1977, Shakur was indicted in relation to six other alleged criminal incidents—charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping—resulting in three acquittals and three dismissals. In 1977, she was convicted of the first-degree murder of Foerster and of seven other felonies related to the shootout.
Shakur was then incarcerated in several prisons, where her treatment drew criticism from some human rights groups. She escaped from prison in 1979 and has been living in Cuba in political asylum since 1984. Since May 2, 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has classified her as a "domestic terrorist" and offered a $1 million reward for assistance in her capture. Attempts to extradite her have resulted in letters to the Pope and a Congressional resolution. (more...)
Did you know...
- ... that other than the Second World War, there has never been a declaration of war by Canada?
- ... that in Young v. Facebook, Inc., Judge Jeremy Fogel found that Facebook was not a physical place for the purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act, despite its having "posts" and "walls"?
- ... DYK3
- ... DYK4
- ... DYK5
- ... DYK6
- ... DYK7
- ... DYK8
Selected images
Selected case
Seneca Nation of Indians v. Christy, 162 U.S. 283 (1896), was the first litigation of aboriginal title in the United States by a tribal plaintiff in the Supreme Court of the United States since Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), and the first such litigation by an indigenous plaintiff since Fellows v. Blacksmith (1857) and its companion case of New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble (1858). The New York courts held that the Phelps and Gorham Purchase did not violate the Nonintercourse Act, one of the provisions of which prohibits purchases of Indian lands without the approval of the federal government, and that (even if it did) the Seneca Nation of New York was barred by the state statute of limitations from challenging the transfer of title. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the merits of lower court ruling because of the adequate and independent state grounds doctrine.
Although the case has not been formally overruled, two Supreme Court decisions from the 1970s and 1980s have undone its effect by ruling that there is federal subject-matter jurisdiction for a federal common law cause of action for recovering possession based on the common law doctrine of aboriginal title. Moreover, the New York courts' interpretation of the Nonintercourse Act is no longer good law, with modern federal courts holding that only Congress can ratify a conveyance of aboriginal title, and only with a clear statement, rather than implicitly. (more...)
Selected statute
The Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act of 1956 was an Act of Congress passed to improve mental health care in the United States territory of Alaska. Introduced in the House of Representatives by Alaska Congressional Delegate Bob Bartlett in January 1956, it became the focus of a major political controversy. The legislation was opposed by a variety of far-right, anti-Communist and fringe religious groups, prompting what was said to have been the biggest political controversy seen on Capitol Hill since the early 1940s. Prominent opponents nicknamed it the "Siberia Bill" and asserted that it was part of an international Jewish, Roman Catholic or psychiatric conspiracy intended to establish United Nations-run concentration camps in the United States. With the sponsorship of the conservative Republican senator Barry Goldwater, a modified version of the Act was approved unanimously by the United States Senate in July 1956 after only ten minutes of debate. (more...)
Legal news
- February 2: Paris court jails two police in high-profile rape case
- February 1: Toronto serial killer Bruce McArthur pleads guilty to eight murders
- January 30: Mokha, Yemen bomb kills photojournalist, at least five others
- January 28: Bombs kill at least 20 at cathedral in Mindanao, Philippines
- January 23: Germany bans Mahan Air of Iran, citing 'security'
- January 14: Arrest made as mayor of Gdańsk, Poland stabbed on stage
- January 10: Wikinews investigates disappearance of Indonesian cargo ship Namse Bangdzod
- January 6: Senator Ted Cruz proposes amendment to U.S. Constitution setting Congressional term limits
- January 4: Magnitogorsk apartment building collapses after explosion, dozens dead
- December 29: German government considers introducing mosque taxes, like church taxes
Quality content
- Featured articles
Accurate News and Information Act
Act of Independence of Lithuania
Afroyim v. Rusk
Al-Kateb v Godwin
Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act
Alcohol laws of New Jersey
Herman Vandenburg Ames
Ashford v Thornton
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Baxter Healthcare Pty Ltd
Hugh Beadle
Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett
Bricker Amendment
William Calcraft
Carucage
Coinage Act of 1873
Coinage Act of 1965
Constitution of Belarus
Court of Chancery
CSI effect
Harold Davidson
Treaty of Devol
Dietrich v The Queen
Eastbourne manslaughter
Ex parte Crow Dog
Execution by elephant
Freedom for the Thought That We Hate
Fuck (film)
Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties
Robert Garran
William Garrow
Gray's Inn
Debora Green
Learned Hand
Hanged, drawn and quartered
Heffernan v. City of Paterson
Horse Protection Act of 1970
Hours of service
Jena Six
Mathew Charles Lamb
LaRouche criminal trials
Law school of Beirut
Marcel Lihau
Malkin Tower
Marshalsea
Menominee Tribe v. United States
Sherman Minton
Ordinances of 1311
Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.
Pendle witches
Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart
Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke
Regulamentul Organic
Report of 1800
Rosewood massacre
Royal assent
Royal baccarat scandal
Same-sex marriage in Spain
Samlesbury witches
Henry W. Sawyer
Saxbe fix
Antonin Scalia
Schmerber v. California
Scottish Parliament
Sega v. Accolade
Elliott Fitch Shepard
Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders
Melford Stevenson
William Howard Taft
Tichborne case
To Kill a Mockingbird
United States v. Kagama
United States v. Lara
United States v. Progressive, Inc.
United States v. Washington
United States v. Wong Kim Ark
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Washington v. Texas
- Featured lists
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
List of computer criminals
List of county court venues in England and Wales
List of politicians, lawyers, and civil servants educated at Jesus College, Oxford
List of Attorneys General of West Virginia
List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada
List of United States Supreme Court Justices by time in office
List of former county courts in Wales
List of high courts in India
Master of the Rolls
Sakharov Prize
- Good articles
For a list of good articles on legal topics, see here.
Subcategories
WikiProjects
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- WikiProject U.S. Supreme Court cases
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