Black's Law Dictionary is the most widely used law dictionary A law dictionary is a dictionary that is designed and compiled to give information about terms used in the field of law in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language. It was founded by Henry Campbell Black Henry Campbell Black was the founder of Black's Law Dictionary, the definitive legal dictionary first published in 1891. It is the reference of choice for definitions in legal briefs A brief is a written legal document used in various legal adversarial systems that is presented to a court arguing why the party to the case should prevail and court opinions In law, an opinion is usually a written explanation by a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling and has been cited as a secondary legal authority In law, a secondary authority is an authority purporting to explain the meaning or applicability of the actual verbatim texts of primary authorities in many U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal judiciary. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate. Once appointed, Justices effectively cases.
The latest editions, including abridged and pocket versions, are useful starting points for the layman or student when faced with an unfamiliar legal word.
Contents |
History
The first edition was published in 1891, and the second edition in 1910. The sixth and earlier editions of the book also provided case citations for the term cited, which some lawyers view as its most useful feature, providing a useful starting point with leading cases. The Internet made legal research easier than it ever had been, so many state- or circuit-specific case citations and outdated or overruled case citations were dropped from the seventh edition in 1999. The eighth edition introduced a unique system of perpetually updated case citations and cross-references to legal encyclopedias. The ninth edition was published in the summer of 2009.
Black's Law Dictionary has been used to create law dictionaries in other languages including Qānūnī, Angrezī-Urdu lug̲h̲at : Blaiks lāʼ dikshanarī se māk̲h̲ūz, published in Urdu in Islamabad by Muqtadirah-yi Qaumī Zabān in 1992, and Farhang-i ḥuqūqī-i Bahman : Ingilīsī-Fārsī : bar asās-i Black's law dictionary, published in Persian in Tehran by Ganj-i Dānish in 1999.
Because many legal terms are derived from a Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native speakers, a small number of scholars can fluently speak it and it continues to be taught in schools and universities and has been, and currently is, used in the process of root word The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Content words in nearly all languages contain, and may consist only of, root morphemes. However, sometimes the term "root" is also used to describe the word minus its inflectional, the Dictionary gives a pronunciation guide for such terms. In addition, the applicable entries provide pronunciation transcriptions pursuant to those found among North American practitioners of law or medicine.
Availability
An online version of the latest edition can be accessed through the paid Westlaw Westlaw is one of the primary online legal research services for lawyers and legal professionals in the United States and is a part of West, a part of Thomson Reuters. In addition, it provides proprietary database services. Information resources on Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of case law, state and federal statutes, administrative legal information service and as of late 2006, West Academic has published Black's Law Dictionary Digital, 8th edition (ISBN 9780314176103) which has toolbars that integrate with Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh (1984), the AT&T Unix PC (1985), Atari ST (1986), SCO UNIX, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows (, Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. A Net Applications statistic put Firefox at 24.59% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of April 2010[update], making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide after Microsoft's and Internet Explorer Windows Internet Explorer , is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. It has been the most widely used web browser since 1999, attaining a peak of about 95% usage share during 2002 and 2003 with IE5 and IE6. The second edition of Black's Law Dictionary (1910) is now in the public domain Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all, if the intellectual property rights have expired, and/or if the intellectual property rights are forfeited. Examples include the English language, the formulae of Newtonian physics, as well as the works of Shakespeare and the patents over powered flight. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. has reprinted the first and second editions (ISBN 0-9630106-0-3 and ISBN 1-886363-10-2, respectively).
As of April 27, 2009 it is also available on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.
Bibliography
- Bryan A. Garner Bryan A. Garner is a U.S. lawyer, a lexicographer, a teacher who has written several books about English usage and style, and the founder of LawProse, Inc. He is the author of Garner's Modern American Usage and editor in chief of all current editions of Black's Law Dictionary. He is also an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University Law, editor, Black's Law Dictionary 9th ed. (West Group, 2009) ISBN 0-314-19949-7.
- Bryan A. Garner Bryan A. Garner is a U.S. lawyer, a lexicographer, a teacher who has written several books about English usage and style, and the founder of LawProse, Inc. He is the author of Garner's Modern American Usage and editor in chief of all current editions of Black's Law Dictionary. He is also an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University Law, editor, Black's Law Dictionary 8th ed. (West Group, 2004) ISBN 0-314-15199-0.
- Bryan A. Garner Bryan A. Garner is a U.S. lawyer, a lexicographer, a teacher who has written several books about English usage and style, and the founder of LawProse, Inc. He is the author of Garner's Modern American Usage and editor in chief of all current editions of Black's Law Dictionary. He is also an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University Law, editor, Black's Law Dictionary 7th ed. (West Group, 1999) ISBN 0-314-22864-0.
- Black's Law Dictionary 6th ed. (West Publishing, 1990)
- Black's Law Dictionary 5th ed. (West Publishing, 1979) ISBN 0-8299-2041-2.
- Black's Law Dictionary, 4th ed. (St. Paul: West, 1951)
- Black's Law dictionary, 3d ed. (West Publishing Co., 1933)
- Bryan A. Garner Bryan A. Garner is a U.S. lawyer, a lexicographer, a teacher who has written several books about English usage and style, and the founder of LawProse, Inc. He is the author of Garner's Modern American Usage and editor in chief of all current editions of Black's Law Dictionary. He is also an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University Law, editor, Black's Law Dictionary 3d pocket ed. (West Group, 2006) ISBN 0-314-15862-6.
- Bryan A. Garner Bryan A. Garner is a U.S. lawyer, a lexicographer, a teacher who has written several books about English usage and style, and the founder of LawProse, Inc. He is the author of Garner's Modern American Usage and editor in chief of all current editions of Black's Law Dictionary. He is also an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University Law, editor, Black's Law Dictionary 2d pocket ed. (West Group, 2001) ISBN 0-314-25791-8.
- Black's Law Dictionary, 2d ed. (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing, 1910) ISBN 1-886363-10-2 Public Domain (accessible for free through Google Book Search)
- Black's Law dictionary, 1st ed. (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing, 1891) ISBN 0-9630106-0-3
External links
- Worldcat listing for all eight editions
- Libraries with the Urdu edition
- Libraries with the Persian edition
- Free 2nd Edition and Other Works by Henry Campbell Black
Categories: 1891 books | Thomson family | Law dictionaries
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