“When [legal professionals] look up a word in a dictionary and they often do they are as likely
as not to select a poor dictionary.”
– Max Radin (“A Juster Justice, a More Lawful Law,”)
A legal dictionary provides the legal definition of a word or term. Researchers use a legal dictionary when they do not understand the legal meaning of a word or term.
When the reader want to know the definitions of a legal term, a legal dictionary is the right tool for the legal researcher. A legal Dictionary is designed to provide easy reference to vocabulary commonly used in the legal community.
In legal research, legal dictionaries may serve several functions. Besides than providing with definitions of words, a legal dictionary can also be useful, by providing synonyms, in developing a legal research strategy, since the researcher has at his dispossal more legal terms to start the research task. In addition, legal dictionaries in most cases provide citations to cases which may define the term. In relation to legal citations, Words and Phrases are usually a superior and more extensive reference work.
A legal thesaurus serves similar purposes (specially providing synonyms) to that of a dictionary, but does not explain the meaning of the legal term and definitively does not contains citations.
According to Scalia and Garner (Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts, West ), the following list of dictionaries are the most useful and authoritative for the English language for law , and they offered the following list:
- 1771: Timothy Cunningham, A New and Complete Law Dictionary, 2 vols. (2d ed. 1771; 3d ed. 1783)
- 1772: Giles Jacob, A New Law Dictionary (9th ed. 1772; 10th ed. 1782)
- 1792: Richard Burn, A New Law Dictionary, 2 vols.
- 1797-1798: William Marriot, A New Law Dictionary, 4 vols. (Marriot’s work was not a new dictionary, but only a new edition or updating of Cunningham)
- 1803: Thomas Potts, A Compendious Law Dictionary
- 1816: Thomas Walter Williams, A Compendious and Comprehensive Law Dictionary
- 1829: James Whishaw, A New Law Dictionary
- 1835: Thomas Edlyne Tomlins, The Law-Dictionary, 2 vols. (also in 1809 and 1820 editions)
- 1839: John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary, 2 vols. (1st ed.)
- 1847: Henry James Holthouse, A New Law Dictionary (Henry Penington ed. Am. ed.)
- 1850: Alexander M. Burrill, A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
- 1859: Alexander M. Burrill, A Law Dictionary and Glossary (2d ed.)
- 1860: J.J.S. Wharton, Law Lexicon, or Dictionary of Jurisprudence (2d Am. ed.)
- 1879: Benjamin Vaughn Abbott, Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence, 2 vols.
- 1883: John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary, 2 vols. (15th ed.)
- 1883: Stewart Rapalje Robert L. Lawrence, A Dictionary of American and English Law, 2 vols.
- 1890: William C. Anderson, A Dictionary of Law
- 1891: Henry Campbell Black, A Dictionary of Law
- 1893: J. Kendrick Kinney, A Law Dictionary and Glossary
- 1901: Walter A. Shumaker George Foster Longsdorf, The Cyclopedic Dictionary of Law
- 1910: Henry Campbell Black, A Law Dictionary, (2d ed. 1910; 3d ed. [retitled Black’s Law Dictionary] 1933)
- 1911: J.J.S. Wharton, Wharton s Law Lexicon (W.H. Aggs ed. 11th ed.)
- 1914: Last revision of Century Dictionary (12 vols.), one of the most reliable sources for historical terms.
- 1919: Benjamin W. Pope, Legal Definitions, 2 vols.
- 1940: Bouvier’s Law Dictionary (William Edward Baldwin ed.) (or other editions during the period)
- 1969: James A. Ballentine, Ballentine s Law Dictionary (William S. Anderson ed. 3d ed.)
- 1970: Max Radin, Law Dictionary (Lawrence G. Greene ed. 2d ed.)
- 1990: Black’s Law Dictionary (4th ed. 1951; 5th ed. 1981; 6th ed. 1990; 7th ed. 1999)
- 1995: Bryan A. Garner, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (2d ed.)
- 1996: Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law
- 2000: Stroud’s Judicial Dictionary (6th ed.), a three volume british text.
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