|
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen a fundamental document of French constitutional history, drafted by Emmanuel Sieyès , adopted by the Constituent Assembly on Aug. 26, 1789, and embodied in the French constitution of 1791 as a preamble. Its framers were much influenced by the Ame...
Read more
|
|
states' rights
states' rights in U.S. history, doctrine based on the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The term embraces both the...
Read more
|
|
adoption
adoption act by which the legal relation of parent and child is created. Adoption was recognized by Roman law but not by common law . Statutes first introduced adoption into U.S. law in the mid-19th cent., and today it is allowed in all states of the United States and in Great Britain. Adoption ...
Read more
|
|
|
Special Drawing Rights
Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), type of international monetary reserve currency established (1968) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Created in response to worries concerning the limitations of gold and dollars as the sole means of settling international accounts, SDRs are designed to augm...
Read more
|
|
National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women (NOW), group founded (1966) to support "full equality for women in America in a truly equal partnership with men." Its founder and first president was feminist leader Betty Friedan , author of The Feminine Mystique (1963). Through a program of legislative lobb...
Read more
|
|
|
natural rights
natural rights political theory that maintains that an individual enters into society with certain basic rights and that no government can deny these rights. The modern idea of natural rights grew out of the ancient and medieval doctrines of natural law , i.e., the belief that people, as creatures...
Read more
|
|
|
right
right in politics, the more conservative groups in the political spectrum, in contrast to the radical left and the liberal center . The designation stems from the seating of the nobility on the right side of the presiding officer in the French National Assembly of 1789. In some European legislat...
Read more
|
|
|
right ascension
right ascension in astronomy, one of the coordinates in the equatorial coordinate system . The right ascension of a celestial body is the angular distance measured eastward from the vernal equinox along the celestial equator to its intersection with the body's hour circle .
...
Read more
|
|
|
Economic and Social Council
Economic and Social Council constituent organ of the United Nations. It is established by chapter 10 of the UN Charter and has 54 (18 before 1965) member nations elected annually for three-year terms by the General Assembly. The council undertakes investigations of international economic and social...
Read more
|
|
|
eminent domain
eminent domain the right of a government to force the owner of private property sell it if it is needed for a public use. The right is based on the doctrine that a sovereign state has dominion over all lands and buildings within its borders, which has its origins in the landholding system under fe...
Read more
|
