Free Legal Encyclopedia: Legislative Veto to Lloyd's
Lemon Laws - Further Readings
Laws governing the rights of purchasers of new and used motor vehicles that do not function properly and which have to be returned repeatedly to the dealer for repairs. Laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia provide remedies to purchasers of defective new vehicles, often called lemons. These so-called lemon laws protect consumers from substantial defects occurring within a specified pe…
Lend-Lease Act
Although the Lend-Lease Act was enacted to provide aid to China and the British Empire, eligibility under its provisions was expanded to include all Allies who were essential to the maintenance of the security of the United States. Subsequent reciprocal agreements with countries Under the Lend-Lease Act, U.S. equipment, food, and weapons were sent to allies during World War II, including these…
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin founded the Russian Communist party and led the 1917 Russian Revolution, which placed the Bolshevik party in charge of the government. The establishment of the Soviet Union can be traced to Lenin's study of revolution and the ruthless imposition of a one-party state based on Lenin's interpretation of Marxism. The Russian Revolution also profoundly affected U.S. …
Leopold and Loeb Trial - Further Readings
The two young men plotted their crime in 1923. They chose the names Louis Mason and Morton Ballard as aliases and successfully stole a typewriter from the University of Michigan to type a ransom note that would be difficult, if not impossible, to trace. By 1924 they had perfected their plan and accumulated their other necessities, including a chisel and acid. Leopold and Loeb chose their victim by…
Lesser Included Offense
A lesser crime whose elements are encompassed by a greater crime. It is not uncommon for a prosecutor and defendant to negotiate an agreement by which the defendant pleads guilty to the lesser included offense either before the trial begins or before the jury returns a verdict. Such a plea negotiation is generally acceptable to the prosecuting attorney because the evidence establishing guilt for t…
Letter Ruling
In tax law a written interpretation of certain provisions of federal statutes by the Office of the Assistant Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Because of the time and expense involved in preparing a request for a letter ruling, such a request is seldom made. The taxpayer must submit a complete record of the transaction in dispute, including a justification for the transaction, all pert…
Letters of Administration
A formal document issued by a court of probate appointing a manager of the assets and liabilities of the estate of the deceased in certain situations. Courts are often asked to rule on the management of a deceased person's estate. Generally, this is a routine matter for probate courts, which are created specifically for this purpose. Individuals generally determine the distribution of their…
Letters Rogatory
A formal written request made by one judicial body to another court in a different, independent jurisdiction that a witness who resides in that jurisdiction be examined through the use of interrogatories accompanying the request. Letters rogatory can be sent to a court in a sister state or to a court or judge in a foreign country. Granting the request, again, is a matter of comity between courts. …
Levees and Flood Control
The system constructed and maintained by government to prevent the overflow of water. As a general rule, the power to construct or establish levees is vested in public authorities and not in individuals. Levee districts are the public agencies most frequently involved in the creation of flood control projects for the purpose of constructing and maintaining flood control improvements for the protec…
Leverage
A method of financing an investment by which an investor pays only a small percentage of the purchase price in cash, with the balance supplemented by borrowed funds, in order to generate a greater rate of return than would be produced by paying primarily cash for the investment; the economic benefit gained by such financing. Any investor receives an anticipated rate of return from the investment a…
Edward Hirsch Levi
Levi was born June 26, 1911, in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1932 and earned a law degree there in 1935. He was a Sterling Fellow at Yale University in 1935 and 1936, and received a degree of Doctor of Juristic Science (J.S.D.) from Yale in 1938. Edward H. Levi. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS Levi returned to the University of Chicago Law School in 1945 as a professor. In …
Levy
A seizure. The obtaining of money by legal process through seizure and sale of property; the raising of the money for which an execution has been issued. A sheriff or other officer of the law can be ordered by a court to make a levy against any property not entitled to an exemption. The court can do this with an order of attachment, by which the court takes custody of the property during pending l…
John Robert Lewis
John R. Lewis. In 1998, Lewis published his autobiography: Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. In 2000, he participated in a gathering in Selma, Alabama, commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery protest march. In 2003, Lewis was a member of the House Budget Committee, and served on the Subcommittee on Health that is part of the House Ways and Means Com…
Lexis®
The Lexis service began in 1973. In 1979, the Lexis service was joined by the companion Nexis® news and information service. Lexis contains more than five thousand legal sources, and Nexis contains more than ten thousand news and information sources. The services add approximately 17.3 million documents each week to their more than three billion documents online. …
Libel and Slander - The Public Figure Doctrine: An Unworkable Concept?, Richard Jewell And The Olympic Park Bombing, Further Readings
Collectively known as defamation, libel and slander are civil wrongs that harm a reputation; decrease respect, regard, or confidence; or induce disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against an individual or entity. The injury to one's good name or reputation is affected through written or spoken words or visual images. The laws governing these torts are identical. To re…
Libertarian Party - Further Readings
The Libertarian party was founded in Colorado in 1971 and held its first convention in Denver in 1972. In 1972 it fielded John Hospers for president and Theodora Nathan for vice president in the U.S. general election. It appeared on two state ballots, receiving a total of 2,648 votes in Colorado and Washington. In the 1976 elections, the party's 176 candidates garnered 1.2 million votes acr…
Libertarianism
A political philosophy that advocates free will, individual rights, and voluntary cooperation. The core doctrine of libertarianism begins with the recognition that people have certain natural rights and that deprivation of these rights is immoral. Among these natural rights are the right to personal autonomy and property rights, and the right to the utilization of previously unused resources. Thes…
Liberty
The state of being free; enjoying various social, political, or economic rights and privileges The concept of liberty forms the core of all democratic principles. Yet, as a legal concept, it defies clear definition. The Court justified its findings of liberty rights that are not enumerated in the Constitution by stating that some rights are basic and fundamental, and that the government has a duty…
Library of Congress - Congressional Research Service, Collections, Copyrights, American Folklife Center, Center For The Book, National Preservation Program
The Library of Congress, located in Washington, D.C., is the world's largest library, with nearly 110 million items in almost every language and format stored on 532 miles of bookshelves. Its collections constitute the world's most comprehensive record of human creativity and knowledge. Founded in 1800 to serve the reference needs of Congress, the library has grown from an original c…
Limited Liability Partnership - Further Readings
A form of general partnership that provides an individual partner protection against personal liability for certain partnership obligations. The Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is essentially a general partnership in form, with one important difference. Unlike a general partnership, in which individual partners are liable for the partnership's debts and obligations, an LLP provides each…
Limited Test Ban Treaty - Further Readings
President Kennedy ratifies the Limited Test Ban Treaty on October 7, 1963. Looking on are Sen. John Pastore, W. Averell Harriman, Sen. James Fulbright, Dean Rusk, Sen. George Aiken, Sen. Hubert Humphrey, Sen. Everett Dirksen, William Foster, Sen. Howard Cannon, and Sen. Leverett Saltonstall. BETTMANN/CORBIS Although Kennedy hailed the LTBT as a significant achievement of his presidency, he…
Abraham Lincoln - The Lincoln Assassination: Conspiracy Or A Lone Man's Act?, Further Readings
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln and his supporters preserved the Union by defeating the South in the Civil War. In 1830 his family moved to Decatur, Illinois. He left his family in 1831 and moved to New Salem, Illinois, where he worked at various jobs and continued his self-education. He began to study la…
Levi Lincoln
Lincoln graduated from Harvard in 1772 and then worked in the office of Joseph Hawley, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he was active in politics and a prominent figure in the Massachusetts movement to abolish slavery. After the Battle of Lexington, in 1775, he traveled with the militia for a brief period before moving to Worcester, Massachusetts. He was …
Robert Todd Lincoln - Further Readings
Robert Todd Lincoln. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Lincoln was born August 1, 1843, in Springfield, Illinois. At the age of 13, he began attending classes at Illinois State University. Lincoln subsequently enrolled in the Phillips Exeter Academy, a prominent preparatory school, and then attended Harvard. His years there were concurrent with his father's presidency, between 1861 and 1865. Linc…
Lindbergh Kidnapping - Further Readings
Lindbergh's historic flight from New York to Paris in The Spirit of St. Louis brought him both adulation and wealth. By the end of 1930, he was estimated to be worth over $1.5 million. His was an enviable life, with more than enough justifications for the nickname Lucky Lindy: world fame; the Congressional Medal of Honor; foreign nations sponsoring his long-distance flights; positions with …
Benjamin Barr Lindsey
Benjamin Barr Lindsey achieved prominence for his work in the juvenile court. Lindsey was born November 25, 1869, in Jackson, Tennessee. He received honorary degrees from the University of Denver and Notre Dame University and was admitted to the bar in 1894. In 1928 he was also admitted to the California bar. In 1900 Lindsey became judge of the juvenile court of Denver, remaining on the bench unti…
Lineup - Further Readings
A criminal investigation technique in which the police arrange a number of individuals in a row before a witness to a crime and ask the witness to identify which, if any, of the individuals committed the crime. In a police lineup, a witness to a crime, who may be the victim, observes a group of individuals that may or may not include a suspect in the crime. The witness is not visible to those in t…
Liquidated Damages
Monetary compensation for a loss, detriment, or injury to a person or a person's rights or property, awarded by a court judgment or by a contract stipulation regarding breach of contract. Generally, contracts that involve the exchange of money or the promise of performance have a liquidated damages stipulation. The purpose of this stipulation is to establish a predetermined sum that must be…
Liquormart v. Rhode Island - Further Readings
A standard was first set in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission, 447 U.S. 557, 100 S. Ct. 2343, 65 L. Ed. 2d 341 (1980). In Central Hudson the Court noted that commercial speech serves the economic interests of the speaker but also helps consumers and society overall. It outlined a four-part test for judicial evaluation of the regulation of commercial speech. Fi…
Listing
There are various types of real estate listings. A general or open listing is a right to sell that may be given to more than one agent or broker simultaneously. An exclusive agency listing is the right of one real estate agency to be the sole party, with the exception of the owner, who is permitted to sell the property during a particular period. Through an exclusive authorization to sell listing,…
Litchfield Law School
The first law school in America, founded by Tapping Reeve (b. October 1744, in Southhold, Long Island, New York; d. December 13, 1823, in Litchfield, Connecticut) in 1784 in Litchfield, Connecticut. It continued operation until 1833. Until the Revolutionary War ended, there was very little civil business transacted in Litchfield County, and Reeve provided legal instruction in anticipation of the c…
Literary Property - J.d. Salinger Biography, Should Biographers Be Allowed To Quote Unpublished Literary Property?, Further Readings
The interest of an author in an original and expressive composition, that entitles the author to the exclusive use and profit thereof, with no interest vested in any other individual. The corporal property in which an intellectual production is embodied. The concept of literature as property grew from the notion that literary works have value, and that writers deserve legal protection from unautho…
Litigation
An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. Before a lawsuit is filed, the person contemplating the lawsuit (called the plaintiff) typically demands that the person who caused the alleged injury (called the defendant) perform certain actions that will resolve the conflict. If the demand is ref…
Ella Lee Little-Collins
Little-Collins was born December 4, 1912, in Butler, Georgia, the eldest of three children of the Reverend Earl Lee Little and his first wife, Daisy Mason. Her parents had two more children, Mary and Earl, Jr., and divorced in 1917 or 1918. Little-Collins's mother moved to Boston around 1920, taking Earl Jr. with her. Ella and Mary were left in Butler, Georgia, with Earl Sr.'s parent…
Sir Thomas Littleton
Littleton's On Tenures is regarded as a model of legal scholarship, a clear and concise classification of English land law. Its significance rests in Littleton's attempt to impose a rational and orderly arrangement on legal rights in land. At the time the work was written, English land law had become extremely complicated. Littleton followed a consistent method of analysis. He first …
Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo
Liuzzo was born in the coal-mining town of California, Pennsylvania, on April 11, 1925. She dropped out of school in the tenth grade and worked as a waitress. In 1950, she married Anthony James Liuzzo, a business agent of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with whom she had three children. Despite her lack of formal education, Liuzzo won acceptance to Wayne State University. By 1965, she …
Livery of Seisin
A ceremony performed in medieval England that effected the transfer of land from one party to another. Livery of seisin was the dominant method of transferring land in England until 1536, and it continued to be legal until 1925. The term livery of seisin means simply "transfer of possession": livery means "delivery" and is from the Old French livrer, and seisin means &#…
Living Will
A written document that allows a patient to give explicit instructions about medical treatment to be administered when the patient is terminally ill or permanently unconscious; also called an advance directive. With improvements in modern medicine, the life of persons who are terminally ill or permanently unconscious can be prolonged. For increasing numbers of persons, the decision of whether to p…
Henry Brockholst Livingston
Livingston was born November 25, 1757, in New York City. Established in New York in the late seventeenth century, his family also included other notable public figures: Philip Henry B. Livingston. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/CORBIS Livingston's outspokenness in public and in print led to conflict. He survived an assassination attempt in 1785, and in 1798, after being punched in the nose by …
Robert R. Livingston
Livingston was born November 27, 1746, in New York City. His great-grandfather came to America in the 1670s with little, but through hard work and a fortuitous marriage soon began building a vast empire. Livingston's father, Judge Robert R. Livingston. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Robert R. Livingston, was called the richest landowner in New York, and real estate holdings of the influential …
Karl Nickerson Llewellyn
Llewellyn was born May 22, 1893, in West Seattle, Washington. His father was of Welsh ancestry and his mother's ancestors had come to the New World on the Mayflower. Llewellyn spent much of his youth in Brooklyn, where his family had moved during the first year of his life. Unhappy and unchallenged academically by high school in the United States, he entered the Real-gymnasium in Mecklenbur…