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Gibraltar

(Encyclopedia)Gibraltar jĭbrôlˈtər [key], British overseas territory (2015 est. pop. 34,000), 2.5 sq mi (6.5 sq km), on a narrow, rocky peninsula extending into the Mediterranean Sea from SW Spain. Most of the ...

social contract

(Encyclopedia)social contract, agreement or covenant by which men are said to have abandoned the “state of nature” to form the society in which they now live. The theory of such a contract, first formulated by ...

Sieyès, Emmanuel Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Sieyès, Emmanuel Joseph ĕmänüĕlˈ zhôzĕfˈ syāĕsˈ [key], 1748–1836, French revolutionary and statesman. He was a clergyman before the Revolution and was known as Abbé Sieyès. His pamphle...

Baarle-Hertog

(Encyclopedia)Baarle-Hertog bärˈlə-hĕrˈtōkh [key], Fr. Baerle-Duc, town, Antwerp prov., N Belgium. A ...

space law

(Encyclopedia)space law, agreements governing the exploration and use of outer space, developed since the first launching (1957) by humans of a satellite into space. Space law, an aspect of international law, has g...

Botany Bay

(Encyclopedia)Botany Bay, inlet, New South Wales, SE Australia, just S of Sydney. It was visited in 1770 by James Cook, who proclaimed British sovereignty over the east coast of Australia. The site of the landing i...

Paris Pacts

(Encyclopedia)Paris Pacts, four international agreements signed in Paris on Oct. 23, 1954, to establish a new international status for West Germany. Since the end of World War II, West Germany had been occupied by ...

Oliva, Peace of

(Encyclopedia)Oliva, Peace of ōlēˈvə, –vä [key], 1660, treaty signed at Oliva (now a suburb of Gdańsk) by Poland and Sweden. John II of Poland renounced the theoretical claim of his line to the Swedish crow...

Recklinghausen

(Encyclopedia)Recklinghausen rĕkˈlĭnghouˌzən [key], city (1994 pop. 127,150), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, an industrial center and transshipment point for the Ruhr district. Manufactures include iron ...

Bynkershoek, Cornelius van

(Encyclopedia)Bynkershoek, Cornelius van kôrnāˈlĭs vän bĭngˈkərs-ho͞ok [key], 1673–1743, Dutch writer on international law. His De dominio maris [on the rule of the seas] (1702, tr. 1923) is a classic on...