This paper addresses the form of simple rate laws used to describe intrinsic char oxidation within practical combustion and gasification codes. The modern literature is surveyed for near-atmospheric kinetic studies that report global reaction order and/or activation energy. The resulting data set together with mechanistic insights drawn from fundamental surface studies are used to assess various semi-global kinetic models. There is strong evidence in the accumulated data for high reaction order (0.6-1) below 900 K, much weaker but significant evidence for low order above 1200 K, and some suggestion of transition toward another high-order regime at temperatures above about 1600 K. Neither global power-law kinetics nor semi-global Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics can describe this temperature-dependent behavior. A three-step semi-global mechanism is proposed whose simple rate law describes the major trends in reaction order, activation energy, and CO/CO2 ratio from 600 to 2000 K. The three-step model includes reaction between gaseous oxygen and surface complex, C(O), which is key to describing the high reaction orders widely reported in the low temperature Zone I regime.