Free Legal Encyclopedia: Indirect evidence to Internal Revenue Code
Individual Retirement Account
A means by which an individual can receive certain federal tax advantages while investing for retirement. The federal government has several reasons for encouraging individuals to save money for their retirement. For one, the average life span of a U.S. citizen continues to increase. Assuming that the average age of retirement does not change, workers who retire face more years of retirement and m…
Industrial Workers of the World
From 1906 to 1928, the IWW was responsible for 150 strikes, including a miners' strike in Goldfield, Nevada, from 1906 to 1907; a textile workers' strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1912; a 1913 silk workers' strike in Paterson, New Jersey; and a miners' strike in Colorado from 1927 to 1928. Despite its radicalism, the IWW was responsible for several gains for organi…
Infants - Legal Rights Of Children, Child Protection, Constitutional Rights Of Children In The Educational Setting, Age Of Legal Medical Consent
Common law held an infant, also called a minor or child, to be a person less than 21 years old. Currently, most state statutes define the age of majority to be 18. Although a person must attain the age of majority to vote, make a will, or hold public office, children are increasingly being recognized by society, legislatures, and the courts as requiring greater protections and deserving greater ri…
Injunction - Types Of Injunction - Contempt
A court order by which an individual is required to perform, or is restrained from performing, a particular act. A writ framed according to the circumstances of the individual case. An injunction commands an act that the court regards as essential to justice, or it prohibits an act that is deemed to be contrary to good conscience. It is an extraordinary remedy, reserved for special circumstances i…
Inland Waters
Canals, lakes, rivers, water courses, inlets, and bays that are nearest to the shores of a nation and subject to its complete sovereignty. Inland waters, also known as internal waters, are subject to the total sovereignty of the country as much as if they were an actual part of its land territory. A coastal nation has the right to exclude foreign vessels, subject to the right of entry in times of …
Innkeeper - Compensation, Liability
An individual who, as a regular business, provides accommodations for guests in exchange for reasonable compensation. An inn is defined as a place where lodgings are made available to the public for a charge, such as a hotel, motel, hostel, or guest house. A guest is a transient who receives accommodations at an inn, transiency being the major characteristic distinguishing him or her from a boarde…
Inquest
The determination or findings of a body of persons called to make a legal inquiry or the report issued after their investigation. The foundation of the modern jury system can be traced back to the Carolingian empire of medieval Europe during the eighth to the tenth centuries. The monarchs used a procedure called inquest, or inquisition, to help them consolidate their authority in the realm. They c…
Inquisitorial System
A method of legal practice in which the judge endeavors to discover facts while simultaneously representing the interests of the state in a trial. In the inquisitorial system, the presiding judge is not a passive recipient of information. Rather, the presiding judge is primarily responsible for supervising the gathering of the evidence necessary to resolve the case. He or she actively steers the s…
Insanity Defense - History, Colin Ferguson, Is There A Need For The Insanity Defense?, Consequences, Defendants' Rights
A defense asserted by an accused in a criminal prosecution to avoid liability for the commission of a crime because, at the time of the crime, the person did not appreciate the nature or quality or wrongfulness of the acts. The insanity defense is used by criminal defendants. The most common variation is cognitive insanity. Under the test for cognitive insanity, a defendant must have been so impai…
Insurable Interest
A right, benefit, or advantage arising out of property that is of such nature that it may properly be indemnified. In the law of insurance, the insured must have an interest in the subject matter of his or her policy, or such policy will be void and unenforceable since it will be regarded as a form of gambling. An individual ordinarily has an insurable interest when he or she will obtain some type…
Insurance - History, Gene Testing, Regulation And Control, Types Of Insurance, Insurable Interest, Premiums - Contract and Policy
A contract whereby, for specified consideration, one party undertakes to compensate the other for a loss relating to a particular subject as a result of the occurrence of designated hazards. In an insurance contract, one party, theinsured, pays a specified amount of money, called a premium, to another party, the insurer. The insurer, in turn, agrees to compensate the insured for specific future lo…
Integration - Further Readings
The bringing together of separate elements to create a whole unit. The bringing together of people from the different demographic and racial groups that make up U.S. society. Months after the Brown v. Bd. of Ed. decision, two schools at military bases in Virginia were first opened to black children. Although not yet required of public schools, the Defense Department ordered the racial integrat…
Intellectual Property - Napster And Intellectual Property, Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks, Other Forms Of Intellectual Property, Developments
Intellectual property laws give owners the exclusive right to profit from a work for a particular limited period. For copyrighted material, the exclusive right lasts for 70 years beyond the death of the author. The length of the right can vary for patents, but in most cases it lasts for 20 years. Trademark rights are exclusive for ten years and can be continually renewed for subsequent ten-year pe…
Intent
A determination to perform a particular act or to act in a particular manner for a specific reason; an aim or design; a resolution to use a certain means to reach an end. Intent is a mental attitude with which an individual acts, and therefore it cannot ordinarily be directly proved but must be inferred from surrounding facts and circumstances. Intent refers only to the state of mind with which th…
Interest on Lawyers Trust Account
A system in which lawyers place certain client deposits in interest-bearing accounts, with the interest then used to fund programs, such as legal service organizations who provide services to clients in need. Originating in Canada and Australia in the 1960s, interest on lawyers trust account (IOLTA) programs made their first appearance in the United States in Florida in 1981. Since then, all 50 st…
Intergovernmental Immunity Doctrine
The doctrine of intergovernmental immunity is frequently invoked in taxation cases. In Davis v. Michigan Department of Treasury, 489 U.S. 803 (1989), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Michigan was in violation of federal law when it exempted state and local government pensions from taxation but levied taxes on federal government pensions. At the time, more than two dozen other states …
Interior Department - Further Readings
The Interior Department is a federal agency responsible for U.S. natural resources and for land owned by the federal government. The department fulfills this responsibility by promulgating and enforcing numerous regulations concerning natural resources and public lands. The head of the department is the secretary of the interior, who sits on the president's cabinet and reports directly to t…
Interlocutory
Provisional; interim; temporary; not final; that which intervenes between the beginning and the end of a lawsuit or proceeding to either decide a particular point or matter that is not the final issue of the entire controversy or prevent irreparable harm during the pendency of the lawsuit. Interlocutory appeals are restricted by state and federal appellate courts because courts do not want pieceme…
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty - Further Readings
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign the INF Treaty on December 8, 1987. The treaty called for an elimination of an entire class of short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS Several successor states to the Soviet Union, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, continue to implement the treaty. Other European nations, includi…
Internal Revenue Code
Subtitle C contains the law of employment taxes. It consists of chapters on general provisions relating to employment taxes and other sections dealing with federal insurance contributions, railroad retirement taxes, and federal unemployment taxes. Subtitle E covers alcohol, tobacco, and other excise taxes. Chapter 53 deals with machine guns, destructive devices, and certain other firearms. Subtitl…