Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bassiouni, M. Cherif

(Encyclopedia)Bassiouni, M. Cherif (Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni), 1937–2017, Egyptian-American international criminal law jurist and human-rights advocate, b. Cairo. Bassiouni fought for Egypt in the Suez conflict (...

benefit of clergy

(Encyclopedia)benefit of clergy, term originally applied to the exemption of Christian clerics from criminal prosecution in the secular courts. The privilege was established by the 12th cent., and it extended only ...

Wharton, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Wharton, Francis, 1820–89, American clergyman and lawyer, b. Philadelphia, grad. Yale, 1839. Admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1843, he became an authority on criminal law and wrote A Treatise on ...

protectorate, in international law

(Encyclopedia)protectorate, in international law, a relationship in which one state surrenders part of its sovereignty to another. The subordinate state is called a protectorate. The term covers a great variety of ...

entrapment

(Encyclopedia)entrapment, in law, the instigation of a crime in the attempt to obtain cause for a criminal prosecution. Situations in which a government operative merely provides the occasion for the commission of ...

conspiracy

(Encyclopedia)conspiracy, in law, agreement of two or more persons to commit a criminal or otherwise unlawful act. At common law, the crime of conspiracy was committed with the making of the agreement, but present-...

Draco, Athenian politician and law codifier

(Encyclopedia)Draco drāˈkŏn [key], fl. 621 b.c., Athenian politician and law codifier. Of his codification of Athenian customary law only the section dealing with involuntary homicide is preserved. From this and...

commutation of sentence

(Encyclopedia)commutation of sentence, in criminal law, reduction of a sentence for a criminal act by action of the executive head of the government. Like pardon, commutation of sentence is a matter of grace, not o...

perjury

(Encyclopedia)perjury pûrˈjərē [key], in criminal law, the act of willfully and knowingly stating a falsehood under oath or under affirmation in judicial or administrative proceedings. If the person accused of ...

Frederick Law Olmstead National Historic Site

(Encyclopedia)Frederick Law Olmstead National Historic Site: see National Parks and Monuments (table)national parks and monuments (table). ...