Question: speculator

Answer: Someone who enters a market (especially land) to buy and then resell at a higher price with the sole goal of making money.

Question: squatter

Answer: Someone who settles on land they do not own. Many 18th and 19th century settlers established themselves on land before it was surveyed and entered for sale, requesting the first right to purchase the land when sales began.

Question: freehold

Answer: Ownership of a plot of land and possession of the title or deed. They have the legal right to improve, transfer or sell their property.

Question: judicial review

Answer: The right of the courts to judge the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress and the state legislatures.

Question: impressment

Answer: Forcible, unwilling draft into military service.

Question: peaceful coercion

Answer: Thomas Jefferson’s strategy designed to force the British and the French to accept the American definition of neutral rights by forbidding American trade with Europe. The centerpiece of this flawed policy was the Embargo Act of 1807.

Question: limited liability

Answer: A contractual clause that ensures that the personal assets of shareholders cannot be seized to cover the debts of a corporation.

Question: eminent domain

Answer: Under the law, this principle gives a government control of all property within its sovereign jurisdiction, and grants it the power to take and use property for public purposes provided that compensation is given to the owners.

Question: common law

Answer: Centuries-old body of English legal rules and procedures that protected the king’s subjects against arbitrary acts by the government.

Question: Judiciary Act of 1789

Answer: Provided for a Supreme Court and a federal court system.