Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

legal profession ... Leibl, Wilhelm

legal profession: vocation that is based on expertise in the law and in its applications. Although there are other ways of defining the profession, this simple definition may be best, despite the fact that in some countries there are several professions and ...
Legal Tender Cases: (1870, 1871), two cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the power of Congress to authorize government notes not backed by specie as money that creditors had to accept in payment of debts.
Legalism: school of Chinese philosophy that attained prominence during the turbulent Warring States era (475-221 BC) and, through the influence of the philosopher Han Fei-tzu, formed the ideological basis of China's first Imperial dynasty, the Ch'in (221-206 BC).
Legare, Hugh Swinton: U.S. lawyer, a conservative Southern intellectual who opposed the attempts of South Carolina's radicals to nullify the Tariff of 1832.
Legaspi: chartered city, southeastern Luzon, Philippines, near an inlet on Albay Gulf. Founded about 1639, it was named for Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, conquistador and first Spanish governor-general of the Philippines. The city lies at the southern base of the active ...
legate: in the Roman Catholic Church, a cleric sent on a mission, ecclesiastical or diplomatic, by the pope as his personal representative. Three types of legates are recognized by canon law. A legatus a latere (a legate sent from the pope's ...
legate: official who acted as a deputy general to governors of provinces conquered by ancient Rome in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, during the period of the republic. In the latter part of the 1st century BC, Julius Caesar initiated ...
legation: major administrative division of the Papal States ruled by a cardinal legate during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the mid-19th century, on the eve of Italian unification, there were four such legations: Bologna (including Ferrara and Romagna), Urbino (covering ...
Legazpi, Miguel Lopez de: Spanish explorer who established Spain's dominion over the Philippines that lasted until the Spanish-American War of 1898.
legend: traditional story or group of stories told about a particular person or place. Formerly the term legend meant a tale about a saint. Legends resemble folktales in content; they may include supernatural beings, elements of mythology, or explanations of natural ...
Legendre, Adrien-Marie: French mathematician whose distinguished work on elliptic integrals provided basic analytic tools for mathematical physics.
Leger, Fernand: French painter who was deeply influenced by modern industrial technology and Cubism. He developed "machine art," a style characterized by monumental mechanistic forms rendered in bold colours.
Legg-Calve-Perthes syndrome: bone disease, a form of osteochondrosis (q.v.).
Leggett, Anthony J.: British physicist, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2003 for his seminal work on superfluidity. He shared the award with the Russian physicists Alexey A. Abrikosov and Vitaly L. Ginzburg.
legion: a military organization, originally the largest permanent organization in the armies of ancient Rome. The term legion also denotes the military system by which imperial Rome conquered and ruled the ancient world.
Legion of Honour: premier order of the French republic, created by Napoleon Bonaparte, then first consul, on May 19, 1802, as a general military and civil order of merit conferred without regard to birth or religion provided that anyone admitted swears to uphold ...
Legionnaire disease: form of pneumonia caused by the bacillus Legionella pneumophila. The name of the disease (and of the bacterium) derives from a 1976 state convention of the American Legion, a U.S. military veterans' organization, at a Philadelphia hotel ...
legislative apportionment: process by which representation is distributed among the constituencies of a representative assembly. This use of the term apportionment is limited almost exclusively to the United States. In most other countries, particularly the United Kingdom and the countries of the ...
Legislative Assembly: national parliament of France during part of the Revolutionary period and again during the Second Republic. The first was created in September 1791 and was in session from Oct. 1, 1791, to Sept. 20, 1792, when it was replaced by ...
legislative investigative powers: powers of a lawmaking body to conduct investigations. In most countries this power is exercised primarily to provide a check on the executive branch of government. The U.S. Congress, however, has exercised broad investigative powers, beginning in 1792 with an ...
Legitimist: in 19th-century France, any of the royalists who from 1830 onward supported the claims of the representative of the senior line of the house of Bourbon to be the legitimate king of France. They were opposed not only to republicans ...
Legnani, Pierina: Italian ballerina whose virtuoso technique inspired Russian dancers to develop their now-characteristic technical brilliance.
Legnano: city, Milano provincia, Lombardia (Lombardy) regione, northern Italy, on the Olona River. An unimportant Roman settlement called Leunianum, it became the site of a fortified castle of the bishops of Milan in the 11th century and in 1176 was the ...
Legnica: city, Dolnoslaskie wojewodztwo (province), southwestern Poland. It lies along the Kaczawa River in the western lowlands of Silesia (Slask).
Legrenzi, Giovanni: Italian composer, one of the greatest of the Venetian Baroque. His trio sonatas are among the best chamber music of the period before Arcangelo Corelli.
Legros, Alphonse: French-born British painter, etcher, and sculptor, now remembered chiefly for his graphics on macabre and fantastic themes. An excellent draftsman, he taught in London, revitalizing British drawing and printmaking during a period of low ebb.
Leguia y Salcedo, Augusto Bernardino: businessman and politician who, during the first of his two terms as president of Peru (1908-12; 1919-30), settled the country's age-old boundary disputes with Bolivia and Brazil.
legume: fruit of plants of the order Fabales (q.v.), consisting of the single family Leguminosae, or Fabaceae (peas, beans, vetch, and so on). The dry fruit releases its seeds by splitting open along two seams. Legumes furnish food for humans and ...
Leguminosae: plant family comprising the order Fabales (q.v.).
Leh: town, eastern Jammu and Kashmir state, India, in the Kashmir region of the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The town is located in the remote valley of the upper Indus River at an elevation of 11,550 feet (3,520 metres), ...
Lehar, Franz: Hungarian composer of operettas who achieved worldwide success with Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow).
Lehi: city, Utah county, northern Utah, U.S. First called Evansville and then Dry Creek, upon its incorporation the city was renamed Lehi, after a patriarch in the Book of Mormon. Located on the northern shore of Utah Lake, the city is ...
Lehigh: county, eastern Pennsylvania, U.S., consisting of a hilly region in the Appalachian Ridge and Valley physiographic province bordered by the Lehigh River to the east and Blue Mountain to the north. Other waterways include Leaser Lake and Jordan, Little Lehigh, ...
Lehigh University: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S. The university includes colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business and Economics, Education, and Engineering and Applied Science. In addition to undergraduate studies, Lehigh offers a range of master's and doctoral ...
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company: American railroad whose growth was based on hauling coal from the anthracite mines of northeastern Pennsylvania. Originally founded in 1846 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna Railroad Company, it changed its name to Lehigh Valley in 1853. It acquired ...
Lehman Caves: large, spectacular cavern at Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, U.S. The cave lies 5 miles (8 km) west of Baker at the base of the eastern slope of Wheeler Peak (13,063 feet [3,982 metres]) in the Snake Range. ...
Lehmann, Johann Gottlob: German geologist who contributed to the development of stratigraphy, the scientific study of order and sequence in bedded sedimentary rocks.
Lehmann, John: English poet, editor, publisher, and man of letters whose book-periodical New Writing and its successors were an important influence on English literature from the mid-1930s through the 1940s.
Lehmann, Lilli: German operatic soprano and lieder singer, known especially for her performances as Isolde in Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde.
Lehmann, Lotte: German lyric-dramatic soprano, particularly renowned for her performances of the songs of Robert Schumann and in the roles of Leonore in Ludwig van Beethoven's opera Fidelio and of the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose).
Lehmann, Orla: political reformer who successfully advocated parliamentary government in 19th-century Denmark.
Lehmann, Rosamond Nina: English novelist noted for her sensitive portrayals of girls on the threshold of adult life. An accomplished stylist, she was adept at capturing nuances of moods. She was the sister of the editor and publisher John Lehmann.
Lehmbruck, Wilhelm: German sculptor, printmaker, and painter best known for his melancholy sculptures of elongated nudes.
Lehn, Jean-Marie: French chemist who, together with Charles J. Pedersen and Donald J. Cram, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1987 for his contribution to the laboratory synthesis of molecules that mimic the vital chemical functions of molecules in living ...
Lehrstuck: a form of drama that is specifically didactic in purpose and that is meant to be performed outside the orthodox theatre. Such plays were associated particularly with the epic theatre of the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. In Brecht's Lehrstucke (published ...
Lehtonen, Joel: Finnish novelist in the naturalistic tradition of Emile Zola and Maksim Gorky.
lei: a garland or necklace of flowers given in Hawaii as a token of welcome or farewell. Leis are most commonly made of carnations, kika blossoms, ginger blossoms, jasmine blossoms, or orchids and are usually about 18 inches (46 cm) long. ...
Lei Kung: ("Thunder God"), Chinese Taoist deity who, when so ordered by heaven, punishes both earthly mortals guilty of secret crimes and evil spirits who have used their knowledge of Taoism to harm human beings. Lei Kung carries a drum and mallet ...
Leiber, Fritz: American writer noted for his stories of innovation in sword-and-sorcery, contemporary horror, and satiric science fiction.
Leiber, Jerry; and Stoller, Mike: American songwriters and record producers. Working primarily for , Leiber and Stoller were perhaps the most successful writers and producers of the 1950s.
Leibl, Wilhelm: painter of portraits and genre scenes who was one of the most important German Realists of the late 19th century.