Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) conspiracy, in law, agreement of two or more persons to commit a criminal or otherwise unlawful act. At common law, the crime of conspiracy was committed with the making of the agreement, but present-...

(Encyclopedia) press, freedom of the, liberty to print or to otherwise disseminate information, as in print, by broadcasting, or through electronic media, without prior restraints such as licensing requirements or c...

(Encyclopedia) Preemption Act, statute passed (1841) by the U.S. Congress in response to the demands of the Western states that squatters be allowed to preempt lands. Pioneers often settled on public lands before th...

(Encyclopedia) Tokyo, University of, at Tokyo, Japan; founded in 1877. In the 1920s it became one of the first Imperial universities and remains one of the most prestigious in Japan. It offers degrees in letters, la...

(Encyclopedia) Burnet, William, 1730–91, political leader in the American Revolution, b. near the present Elizabeth, N.J.; father of David G. Burnet. A physician practicing in Newark, Burnet was chairman of the Re...

(Encyclopedia) Blair, Francis Preston, 1791–1876, American journalist and politician, b. Abingdon, Va. Through the Frankfort, Ky., journal Argus of Western America, which he edited with Amos Kendall, Blair was an ...

(Encyclopedia) World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters at Geneva. WIPO became an agency in 1974, but its roots go back to 1883 when the need for i...

(Encyclopedia) Tullahoma tələhōˈmə [key], city (1990 pop. 16,761), Coffee and Franklin counties, central Tenn.; settled c.1850 as a railroad labor camp, inc. 1903. It is an industrial center in a highland timbe...

(Encyclopedia) Perlman, Selig, 1888–1959, American economist, b. Bialystok, Poland. His parents were active in the Zionist and labor movements of Eastern Europe. Perlman emigrated to the United States in 1918, whe...

(Encyclopedia) balance of payments, balance between all payments out of a country within a given period and all payments into the country, an outgrowth of the mercantilist theory of balance of trade. Balance of paym...