limitations, statute of

Legislative act restricting the time within which legal proceedings may be brought, usually to a fixed period after the occurrence of the events that gave rise to the cause of action. Such statutes are enacted to protect persons against claims made after evidence has been lost, memories have faded, or witnesses have disappeared. The periods prescribed for different actions in different jurisdictions vary considerably.

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Negotiations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union aimed at curtailing the manufacture of strategic nuclear missiles. The first round of negotiations began in 1969 and resulted in a treaty regulating antiballistic missiles and freezing the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. It was signed by Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon in 1972. A second round of talks (1972–79), known as SALT II, addressed the asymmetry between the two sides' strategic forces and ended with an agreement to limit strategic launchers (see MIRV). Signed by Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter, it was never formally ratified by the U.S. Senate, though its terms were observed by both sides. Subsequent negotiations took the name Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START). Seealso intermediate-range nuclear weapons; Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.

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