The cases that changed the law

A single case rarely changes a law on its own. But some become the name attached to a change already building — a story specific enough, and public enough, to move a legislature that had been hesitating.

The files here each left a mark on the statute book. Megan Kanka's murder produced the community-notification laws now known everywhere as "Megan's Law"; Polly Klaas's was cited in California's 1994 "three strikes" law; Sarah Payne's led to the UK disclosure scheme called "Sarah's Law". Others reached further afield: a stalker-regulation law in Japan after Shiori Ino, an anti-discrimination law in Chile after Daniel Zamudio, the closing of a family-pardon loophole for "honour" killings in Pakistan after Qandeel Baloch.

The reforms here reach from a Depression-era kidnapping statute to modern sex-offender registries, hate-crime acts, and product-safety rules — but the pattern is constant: a specific loss, and a change that carries the person's name. The reforms are recorded here as each dossier records them. The collection is not a monument to the legislation, but to the people whose names it carries.