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Code Napoléon

(Encyclopedia)Code Napoléon sēvēlˈ [key], first modern legal code of France, promulgated by Napoleon I in 1804. The work of J. J. Cambacérès and a commission of four appointed by Napoleon I in 1800 was import...

Wickersham, George Woodward

(Encyclopedia)Wickersham, George Woodward, 1858–1936, American lawyer and government official, b. Pittsburgh. He began law practice in Philadelphia, and after moving (1882) to New York City, he became a prominent...

amnesty

(Encyclopedia)amnesty ămˈnəstē [key], in law, exemption from prosecution for criminal action. It signifies forgiveness and the forgetting of past actions. Amnesties are usually extended to a group of persons du...

Justice, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)Justice, United States Department of, federal executive department established in 1870 and charged with providing the means for enforcing federal laws, furnishing legal counsel in federal cases, and c...

abandonment

(Encyclopedia)abandonment, in law, voluntary, intentional, and absolute relinquishment of rights or property without conveying them to any other person. Abandonment also means willfully leaving one's spouse or chil...

identity theft

(Encyclopedia)identity theft, the use of one person's personal information by another to commit fraud or other crimes. The most common forms of identity theft occur when someone obtains another person's social secu...

Hale, Sir Matthew

(Encyclopedia)Hale, Sir Matthew, 1609–76, English jurist. He was successively a judge in the Court of Common Pleas (1654), chief baron of the Exchequer (1660), and chief justice of the Court of King's Bench (1671...

procedure

(Encyclopedia)procedure, in law, the rules that govern the obtaining of legal redress. This article deals only with civil procedure in Anglo-American law (for criminal procedure, see criminal law). Except for evide...

Fonseca, Rubem

(Encyclopedia)Fonseca, Rubem, 1925–2020, Brazilian short-story writer and novelist. Fonseca, who studied law and worked for a time as a police officer, is known for urban crime tales, many informed by his police ...

Wainewright, Thomas Griffiths

(Encyclopedia)Wainewright, Thomas Griffiths wānˈrīt [key], 1794–1852, English art critic and criminal. He contributed essays on the arts to the London Magazine under the pseudonyms Egomet Bonmot and Janus Weat...