LGBT rights in Cyprus not recognised or mentioned in the law. With independence from Britain in 1960, Cyprus retained British colonial law on the island almost in its entirety, with the relevant parts of the "Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885" becoming articles 171 to 174 of Chapter 154 of the Cypriot Criminal Code. The articles were first challenged in 1993, when Alexandros Modinos, a Cypriot architect and gay rights activist won a legal court case against the Government of Cyprus, known as "Modinos v. Cyprus", at the European Court of Human Rights. The Court ruled that Section 171 of the Criminal Code of Cyprus
United States Declaration of Independence individual colonies, such as the Rhode Island legislature declaring its independence from Great Britain on May 4, the first colony to do so. Many "declarations" were resolutions adopted at town or county meetings that offered support for independence. A few came in the form of jury instructions, such as the statement issued on April 23, 1776, by Chief Justice William Henry Drayton of South Carolina: "the law of the land authorizes me to declare ... that "George" the Third, King of "Great Britain" ... has no authority over us, and we owe no obedience to him." Most of these declarations