Legal Research

Two Resources on Legal Dictionaries

Professional Reading: Problems with Current English-Spanish Legal Dictionaries
Posted on Law Librarian blog
R. De Groot (University of Maastricht) and Conrad Van Laer (University of Maastricht) has deposited The Quality of Legal Dictionaries: An Assessment in SSRN. From the abstract:

"In this article, the quality of the different bilingual legal dictionaries between the languages of the Member States of the European Union will be assessed. In order to do so, some general remarks will be made first about problems with translating legal terminology. Based on those remarks, criteria for reliable bilingual dictionaries will be formulated in the next section. Finally, these criteria will be applied on the available bilingual dictionaries containing the legal language used by one or more EU Member States. To illustrate this, we have attached an updated bibliography encompassing about 200 recently published bilingual and multilingual legal dictionaries in the European Union.

The bibliography in the Annex will be the evidence for our final conclusion that most legal dictionaries must be classified as a word list, which implies here that they are of dubious quality. To date, few legal dictionaries have attempted to meet our criteria. Dictionaries that are based on comparative legal research, on the other hand, offer advantages that render them useful to professional translators."

FAQ: Where can I find a law dictionary?
based on the post on the Ross-Blakley Law Library Blog

If you are logged in to LexisNexis or Westlaw, you can quickly get a definition.

On Westlaw, there is a Definitions search box in the left column on the Law School tab. Enter your term and Westlaw will retrieve all definitions of that term. You can also search the full text of Black?s Law Dictionary by searching the BLACKS database.

On LexisNexis, there is a Legal Dictionary search box in the top banner of most pages. You can also search the Legal Dictionaries, Combined (LGLDIC) file, which includes Ballentine?s Law Dictionary, The Law Dictionary, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, and Modern Dictionary for the Legal Profession.

The Law Library has four copies of the most recent edition Black?s Law Dictionary at call number KF156 .B53 2004, three in Reserve and one in the Reference Office. (Older editions also available) You will also find A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Modern Dictionary for the Legal Profession, and several other legal dictionaries and thesauri in the Reference Office or Reference Collection.

Need help finding a law dictionary? Ask a librarian.

Full post as published by LexLibris on December 01, 2008 (boomark / email).