History & Law

An argument that the art, science, or thinking of an earlier time is inherently inferior to that of the present, simply by virtue of its timing priority or the belief that since civilization has advanced in certain areas, people of earlier time periods were less intelligent.

From the French for a sanitary cordon, traditionally refers to forming a quarantine area, but also in politics implies off-limit topics, zones, and parties.

The belief that society or an institution is in irreversible decline. Often more a mood than a fact — every generation tends to think the best days are behind them.

The idea that some extreme events aren't just rare outliers but arise from distinct, identifiable mechanisms — positive feedback loops, tipping points, and phase transitions that amplify them beyond normal scale.

Looking backwards after an event has occurred and arguing for its obvious predictability, when in fact at the time it was not or was much harder to predict.

A set of considerations is thought to hold good only because a completed process is read into the content of the process which conditions this completed result.

A legal term indicating that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offense.

Latin for "he said it himself" — an assertion without proof; or a dogmatic expression of opinion.

The mental element of a person's intention to commit a crime; or knowledge that one's action or lack of action would cause a crime to be committed.

Someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations.

Acknowledging that a comparison being made requires certain alterations that don't need to be stated but they will be made.

Judging historical actions, people, or events by present-day moral standards, values, and cultural norms rather than understanding them within the context of their own time.

A Latin phrase used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is contingent upon the other.

In the common law of torts, res ipsa loquitur (Latin for "the thing speaks for itself") is a doctrine that infers negligence from the very nature of an accident or injury in the absence of direct evidence on how any defendant behaved.

A legal doctrine holding that an employer or principal is responsible for the actions of their employees or agents performed within the scope of their duties.

The argument that because an event has occurred under some circumstance, the circumstance must have made its occurrence inevitable.

A critical clue or framework that unlocks understanding of something previously incomprehensible.

An indispensable condition, action, or ingredient — something so essential that nothing can proceed without it.

Often in law, describes an act of authority taken without formal prompting from another party.

A prefix denoting the first, earliest, or most archetypal form of something.

A public debate within a country on a problematic period of its recent history. Most often associated with World War II and the Holocaust.