legal education and practice

First, a charter can be defined broadly as the highest law of an entity. More specifically:

Chattel is a catch-all category of property associated with movable goods. At common law, chattel included all property other than real property. Examples include leases, animals, and money. In modern usage, chattel usually only refers to tangible movable personal property. 

“Chevron deference” refers to the doctrine under which courts historically deferred to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute that the agency administers.

Child custody issues most often arise in divorce and separation proceedings.

• family law
• family-law-divorce

The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) is a federal law enacted in 2002 that amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to address the problem of "aging out" in U.S. immigration

The Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law on May 6, 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur. It was an act of Congress that effectively terminated Chinese immigration for ten years, and prohibited the Chinese from becoming U.S. citizens.

The legal doctrine of Church and State refers to the constitutional principle of separation between government and religion in the United States.

CIA stands for the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for gathering, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence related to foreign governments, organizations, and individuals. Commonly referred to as “the Agency” and historically nicknamed “the Company,” the CIA plays a central role in safeguarding U.S. national security interests abroad.

Circuit riding is the act undertaken by judges, who would often travel between towns within a judicial district (previously known as a circuit) to hear cases in each town. Now, this practice has largely been discontinued.

[Last reviewed in July of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]